FWIW, I have a kid (and a second on the way), and I want to go to an office, my office - not back to the office. That is, I want a separate place to work from, to make work-life balance easier and better insulate myself from the kid-related chaos during work hours.

But this can be solved with just renting a separate flat and using it as an office; something I actually considered, except small flats are the new fad for real estate investors (at least where I live), so prices are ridiculous.

Going back to the office, the company building, removes a lot of the flexibility and freedom that are important to me, and bring in heaps of crap that I don't want to deal with.

Exactly, if I could go back to an office that was even remotely comparable to my home office I wouldn't be so resistant.

I don't want to go back to a small room crammed full of programmers shoulder to shoulder, stuck on depressingly out of date equipment, with shitty air conditioning and public restrooms.

I'm sooo much more productive and happy working from home

I like WFH better, but I wouldn't mind having an office within the company building, even if it's a shared office as long as it's shared with people who work on the same thing as me.

What I can't stand, and what I believe many people don't realize how much they can't stand it instead of something else, is having to share a space with people I have nothing to do with. Open floor plans prevent me from talking with my close colleagues, they force me to overhear conversations I have no interest in, strangers walking by all the time, the lack of privacy generates anxiety and so on.