If giving your workers agency over where work is performed is against a company's values, again, the whole business might not be very good at all. Companies are allowed to say no, but workers can also unionize and support reps who will codify remote work as a right. They can also leave, potentially putting the business in peril depending on role.

We can't argue this from data, because the data is mixed, so we are left with arguing from a position of power asymmetry ("I am the boss so I make the rules") and working conditions at somewhere workers spend a third of their life. Workers are left to flex whatever is available to them. Change happens slowly, and then all of a sudden.

If businesses must die in the process, and commercial real estate investment losses are enormous, so be it. Work to live, don't live to work (and quality of life and working arrangement is a significant component of that). Meaningful work is nice, but no one is showing up if you didn't provide the check.