I own/run a co-working space which is almost entirely open plan. Many people here elect to work in this sort of environment rather than at home. People use headphones if they need to focus.

Personally, at home I am too easily distracted - I can pick through the fridge or cupboards, or read news sites forever. At the office, my screen is visible and as such I'm more likely to stay focused. I vastly prefer the incidental social interactions in an open plan office too.

Not everyone loves open-plan, but if it was truly a disaster, the space wouldn't be full.

Out of curiosity, what percent of them are developers?

3-5 are programming. Others are architects, marketers, etc.

In a previous iteration of the same space, there would've been anything up to 75% programmers but the bulk of them bought and moved to another open-plan office.

isn't a factor that the "open office" subscription costs typically an order of magnitude less than the private office?

(thinking of wework)