I don't buy it. I share a screen and mentor people over MS Teams in my company right now. The tools are out there.
I think the social aspect of a soul sucking 2 hour commute every day is more harmful to an individual than any positive aspect of being around peers at work.
And it's not like WFH is the universally enforced norm, the way office work used to be. There are still tons of companies that make everyone go to the office. People who need that are free to work for those companies. Nobody else owes them anything.
When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
Pay people for commute time (1 to 2 hours a day) and we’ll talk about it again. For now forcing people into noisy environments seems to be in their disservice. As far as productivity goes, forcing people back into offices would probably make them less productive as well.
I think the social aspect of a soul sucking 2 hour commute every day is more harmful to an individual than any positive aspect of being around peers at work.