One reason would be an assumption that ROWE requires a manager like the person that quit to maintain it, and without him, the production would drop through the floor. Upper management were conservatively rolling back to what worked before him.

I think it requires more skillful management. How do you measure results? It's much easier to count the hours people spend in the office or how often they repeat a predefined process even if that process is inefficient.

Lobbying from the remaining middle management?