There is an ample sized cohort of workers that prefer being in an office to working from home for various reasons from them being outgoing and social to their home office environment not being conducive to interactions help them problem solve faster.

Without actually surveying Apple employees I don't think it's reasonable to make assumptions one way or another about their preferences based on your own.

(Point of note: I drastically prefer WFH to being in an office)

Apple also has a world class campus, filled with some of the smartest folks on the planet, free food and great amenities.

I'm certain it's a little different than returning to the cube farm at generic-non-tech-company-that-employs-coders

Q: Do you prefer pre-pandemic life to a global pandemic?

A: we like pre-pandemic better

It could also be weird wording like this.

I also suspect that different roles feel differently. If your life is meetings, WFH is tough. A.k.a. everybody high up in an org with all the power.

Some of us no longer have to ride in three elevator bays among 60 floors with no gap between meetings.

Now it's just a JOIN button, and having 27 people in the room is much less stuffy.

So "manager schedules" people have that going for us.

IDK, I think lots of social people at least want to come in from time to time, maybe once or twice a week. Zoom is no replacement for face to face conversations and coffee.