If employers offered the same working environment as a home office, it would be much more expensive.

Open plan is only cheap on the books. It costs a lot in decimating the focus of people working there.

Ymmv, but for me work from office is far more productive than from home. It also allows a very effective context switch so you don't feel like working when you are at home.

My commute to and from the office took 3 hours+ per day.

Now I work from home 2 (two) jobs, one full time that used to be the office and one contract. I make 2x what the single office job pays me and only so I'm close to a decent pay while still below US average for developers (I live in EU).

No ducking way I'm going back to half pay plus wasting half a day in traffic for free.

Well 3hours commute per day is, of course, not too good. I get to office on foot in 90 seconds, so it certainly affects my POV (on the other hand, it used to be longer, but I just moved close to the office).

On you working 2 jobs: I knew people who were working remotely 2 full-time jobs at the same time. I think their employers wouldn't be thrilled if they somehow found out about it

I have the suspicion that your situation is not really representative of software developers in general. It's great if it works for you but don't expect others to help you if they're not getting their share of that 2x.

It’s easy for me to context switch. I have a separate office. I only go in there to work.

Yeah, but not everyone has the luxury to have a fully separate office room/space for themselves

If you can work remotely from anywhere you can afford a house in the burbs with space for a separate office - somewhere in the US.