Something I hope companies will consider is that a lot of people think that just by being in the office they are 'working' regardless of whether they are in fact getting anything done.
This is the part that annoys me the most. Managers pretend that Seat Time = Productivity when we all know that's not the case. I've watched people sit and talk for hours, then sit and browse the internet or play games for hours. We just had a group of people who were told to stop playing online Chess all day.
Forcing people to come into the office full-time is just management's way of making their jobs easier and making themselves feel better. In my experience, it's a substitute for doing other things that they should be doing, like reviewing code that their team has committed that week, talking to their team about what they're working on, what they're planning to work on, what challenges they're facing, etc.
What was their job? We're not talking about software developers here, are we?
Why wouldn't it be...
And you're right that it makes management's job easier. It is management's job to make sure that their teams are producing work, and the unfortunate reality of a lot of workers is that unless they have the threat of someone walking by and seeing that they aren't being productive, they will end up wasting a lot of time. This doesn't mesh well with remote work. Not everyone is like that, but many are, and that's enough to ruin the remote work experience for everyone.
Who are these managers cand how can I get a job working for them.
All I have to do is show up, no goals, no performance reviews, no castigation ver failing to deliver value through working software...
Okay, snark aside, if we throw away the completely clueless managers who don't actually manage people, we have to look at managers who want you in the office AND want the job done.
We may have criticisms for them, but we surely cannot say that they think that seat time equals productivity. The very fact that they manage performance with other metrics tells us that they don't think seat time equals productivity.
So... I am not saying that some managers aren't in need of percussive cluestick application, nor am I saying that working on offices is the OneTrueWayToShipWorkingSoftware, but I am suggesting that the argument is richer and deeper than "Managers think seat time equals productivity."
Work in the IT department of any small or medium-sized enterprise. They seem to be the norm there.