It is not an open plan. There are a lot more strategic choices you can make with plants, walls and sunlight to make it more interesting. You would have to hire experts though. And yes a pure open plan is terrible. I knew it when I first set foot in one.

Are you saying that developers have individual offices?

Whoa now, whoa now, that would be bad for collaboration. They've done interesting things with plants, walls, and sunlight.

He has his own office, of course.

That's how it usually ends up. I worked at a company where devs had their own private offices, it was heaven. Now I work at home where I have a private office instead of a shared office space with no privacy, loud noises, and and nothing of mine is there because no one owns an office.

I will accept RTO if I can make a little cave with office plants as my office.

Now there's an idea! Someone needs to write "The Goblin Developer Manifesto"!

Of course not. He would have said it outright if that was the case. He's using weasel words to obscure the fact that it is an open office after all. Or a bunch of smaller open offices separated by expertly designed drywall.