Some of us don't have permanent desks at work (not saying that is what is going on here), but there can be many reasons to 'pack up and bring home' work stuff.

Not even a permanent drawer?

I worked at companies that had 'clean desk' policies. No desk, no drawer, no nothing for questionable benefit (it was touted as a security policy).

I can't imagine working at a place like this for one day longer than I really had to, before finding a better job.

That is what I did. I took the job as a knee-jerk reaction from losing projects because or covid as a freelancer. I think it has to do with the ISO security certification. It brings lots of little nuisances.

Very common in Pharma/Life science as documents are highly controlled, also anything visible to an auditor is seen as a risk to be managed. Auditors if the want can ask to see inside drawers, cabinets etc

The ones that I've worked at still allowed you to keep your things in a locked drawer. I'm surprised to hear there are places that don't even allow that much.

In such companies it should be straightforward to request a particular keyboard for health reasons (risk of RSI). If you're lucky you can get exactly what you want, at worst it would be a Kinesis Advantage or Maltron.

I got in the habit during the early days of RTO. I did start a second board, but (as is tradition) I upped the difficulty and it's now gathering dust on my bench.