That's the definition of the "sunk cost fallacy".
"Hey, I commited to paying for something I don't need. I better force and inconvenience myself to use it then, despite this not having ANY difference in my having to pay the amount anyway".
But I'm not sure it makes sense. Why is it that CEOs were totally fine saying "oops we done goofed and overhired, sorry gotta do some layoffs now" when post-pandemic inflation hit, but they're not comfortable altering or nuancing their strategy in response to what we learned about remote work during the pandemic?
I think this is a just-so story. There's more layers to this onion.
IMHO, all the amount of issues correlated with RTO are far more complex than an onion. I'd rather compare it with a wool cloth, everything is linked tightly with everything, and the tensions that came from Covid have left some parts permanently deformed.
Seating staff level engineers next to the desktop support row, or C-suite admin row, and other loud areas with no virtuous "informal learning" overlap was the norm at my last company.
You also get to sit near idiots who want to debate politics all day or talk about the latest TV shows and sportsball. A day in the office without top of the line noise cancelling headphones is essentially a negative productivity day.
CEOs want to treat many of us like cattle into pens.
Altering their plans on RTO to fit the needs of the workers is an expression of power in the hands of those workers.
They periodically keep asking people to come in more while actually not even having enough desks in 2 of our major offices.
The desk shortage is bad enough you have to beg for consultant desks and every couple months we get a mass mail ordering everyone to stay home next week to accommodate some visitors.
So on the face of it, would seem that our company is at full utilization of office space given COVID era remote hiring & hoteling, and yet they still want to nag. They really just want employees in "how high sir?" mode, with tears in our eyes.
If companies don't have any financially viable ways to offload the real estate costs they have to weigh the pros and cons. Remote work comes with its own expenses, from software licenses only needed for remote teams to home office stipends and team off sites. None of these are required obviously, but expected by most remote workers in large tech companies.
I expect it turns into a bit of an actuarial process, trying to estimate how many quality employees you will lose versus the additional expense and potential inefficiencies of remote.
Theres also the fact that this is a perfect excuse to cut a number of employees without officially doing layoffs. If you over hired for a few years while the money rolled in you might be happy for an excuse to see people leave.