In the case of a remote employee, why wouldn't the employee knows what works best for them? Maybe it's not a hipster open space with beer on tap.
If they're setting up a remote but co-located team, the situation may well be different--although there are a variety of options.
Practical take: For the same reason companies don't let you book your own plane tickets and expense claim them, and almost always instead use corporate services like Amex Global Travel / Carlson Wagonlit Travel, as well as mandate the use of the corporate card on travels etc. When you have a non-trivial amount of employees, companies don't want to do one-off arrangements like that, or argue about what is reimbursable. WeWork being a "known quantity" / The Default(tm) is really important to Corporate. Your experience may vary at smaller companies.
As Patio11 put it, "You probably have a lot of questions but it’s a Holiday Inn; anything else?" https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1161796809741627392?lang=...