> You're going to spend nearly 1/3 of your waking hours with these people. You don't need to be best friends forever, but working somewhere that you don't at least have some friendly interaction and culture sounds utterly miserable.

Why are you assuming remote == unfriendly? That's silly.

What people are pushing back against isn't being friendly or developing a good working relationship with your peers. People are pushing back against "Not mandatory but you will be judged for not attending" after work happy hours, or extra-curricular work events where you are expected to attend during your free time. Things that seek to place your coworkers as your friends, and take away from time you could spend with your family and outside-of-work friends.

This parasitic work culture seeks to make the workplace replace your family and friends and it's all centered around the office.

> There is more to life than team dynamics.

There is more to life than work, period.