The companies are also signaling that they find random in person collaboration more valuable than heads down efficiency.

I imagine there is a correlation between novel/interesting ideas that generate new revenue and being immersed in an environment of peers that you collaborate/chat with.

Anecdotally I would imagine the opposite. I am not going to innovate for you after even a 20 or 30 minute commute and all the in-office interruptions and ceremony. After 5 I'm out the door and the lights upstairs are off. I'm not responding to emails or picking up my phone.

However remotely I am basically never off. A common thing that comes up with remote work is you have a hard time just turning off, but I don't mind as I'm not mentally exhausted by interruptions and can actually enjoy the work I'm doing.

But I'm sure its a person to person thing, type of environment, industry, etc.

If those companies didn't need people on-site, the jobs would, and typically do, go overseas to lower-wage countries. There are tons of companies using remote work. It's called outsourcing.

There are plenty of remote employment opportunities that are stable career paths. So I don't think it's fair to say that as soon as remote work is a possibility the job will be sent overseas.

I think the early 2000s burned a lot of companies for trying to cheap out on dev costs by offshoring - offshoring is a valid choice in some situations and will probably become more and more competitive as time goes on... but there still is quite a lot of value in hiring out of the four year uni grad pool.

You think the only barrier to outsourcing white collar work is the physical location of workers?