Dude, they're not the same thing. IDK what else to tell you. If you weren't a fully remote employee and you took liberties during covid then that time has come to an end. Google doesn't agree that you are a fully remote employee by default anymore. So convince them that you are or take a remote job where you can have what you want.

Your own phrasing cuts to it, though. For a time, they did agree that folks were fully remote /by default./ I'd argue it was more /by necessity/, but they set the tone. To reneg on that is on terms they set.

And again, I'm actually not fully pro-remote. But this is a bed they made.

I am not a Google employee so I don't know the details. As far as I'm aware they never said "you're fully remote now don't worry about coming back to the office" and now are reneging. If they said that and are reneging then I guess I understand the frustration a lot more and agree people have grounds to feel slighted. Still I think the best recourse is a direct conversation with your manager rather than trying to convince everyone on HN that fully-remote is the only reasonable stance one can take in the software engineering field (royal you, here, not specifically directed at you).

Certainly fair. I'm in the same boat. Looking from the outside. I was at another large company that was a lot heavier on the messaging, and it definitely feels like a reneg.