According to this pre-covid article, up to 25% of US workers did "some or all" of their work from home [1]. That matches with my memories.
So while this article says remote work was increasing, and I am sure it was incrementally in certain tech, marketing, and sales positions, I don’t think its a good example of remote work (as it is defined today) becoming a norm then.
Pre-covid, I worked around 1 day a week remote, but was in the office the other 4 or traveling for work. I believe I knew maybe 2 people in my social and business circles back then that I would define as having a “remote work” job (by our present definition).