Hypocrisy is not an endearing leadership trait

Sure but does employee no. xxx,xxx have so much of their head up their arse that they feel entitled to deserve equal working benefits as The 8th Googler?

Yes

Of course he can work from wherever he wants. The problem is, if he thinks that remote working is bad, he shouldn't do it either.

he thinks it's bad for other engineers under him - but not for himself, since he can trust himself to do the work properly.

If he doesn't trust the engineers under him to work without constant supervision, then he has a huge recruitment/management issue to deal with.

His "fuck you" money has its own "fuck you" money...but if he doesn't want to work in the same circumstances as everybody else, why not just retire?

When you're employee #8 at one of the biggest technology companies in history, and help create and drive almsot everything that got the company there... the idea of retirement and doing nothing is horrifyingly boring to some people.

in the end Google opted for WFH, however.

I heard it metaphorized like this: if a congress member votes against some healthcare bill but it gets approved, does that congress member lose the ability to apply? I'm sure there's some Schadenfreude thinking about it, but logistically it doesn't make much sense.

I’m a Googler minion and I approve this message. Dude paid his dues. Inasmuch as we all want to be treated equally, there’s reward for hard work.