This is what I wonder. A powerful local laptop is so useful - instant feedback; works on the train or any other offline/low-connectivity setting; the only engineer you need looking after it really is the one who has it.

Having said that, cloud development means you don't need big capex orders for laptops all the time, and it's probably easier to secure.

Where I work, they used to give you desktop computers (pre Covid) for the workstation purpose, but post-covid they just provision a VM for you. Honestly, its probably cheaper in short-term and only mildly more expensive long term. No real IT work needed (since <cloud provider> handles the hardware), and automatic upgrades if more ram/GPU/etc is needed. Even a really big VM ($80/m) wouldn’t be crazy compared to the logistics of managing/storing/powering/networking a bunch of desktops across an office.