It's reasonable to think in retrospect that, even assuming companies had reasonable measures of productivity and related metrics (which is by no means a given), OF COURSE during the pandemic, they were going to make statements to the effect that "everything is fine/better than we expected."

And, even from a somewhat less cynical perspective, it's reasonable to see a more complicated picture where many things, but not all things, are indeed more or less OK. Overlaid on this is that a lot of companies have cut back on travel etc. budgets so one of the alternatives to people getting together in local offices is at least somewhat off the table.