It goes both ways though. Up until now the nice chat zone was limited to people on the same floor. With WFH we got people in other countries joigning the chats on equal footing.

The info density difference also seem to be compensated by everyone being more open and comfortable (not packed in noisy office for the day)

There's definitely less random chats, it's more formal and less intense, but also broader and the hurdle is lower.

I think for companies above some size it's not better or worse, just different.

The problem is that the person in the office in another city, or perhaps even on another floor of your building, probably doesn't get to have that nice chat, ever, due to the lower likelihood of running into each other.

Why should my requests get better prioritization just because I happen to work on the same floor as a person in a key position?