Of course it's relevant because it's all the same. Software engineers have merely deluded themselves into believing they command things. Without a union, you have no bargaining power.

Everyone likes to believe they're mama's special little laborer. But you're not, you're a cog like the rest of us and the only thing you command is a shitty drip coffee machine in a cramped break room.

This is a matter of class, not a matter of profession. You, and I, are being bullied by our employers because we have absolutely 0 say in how we work our jobs. That's no different than any manual laborer - minus the ones who are unionized.

In a matter of irony, mechanics and such that operate in a union have much more control over their workplace. If their job allowed it, they could trivially strike for the benefit of WFH. That's not a power you have, you're too busy bending over and then later justifying how you wanted to take it all along.

What you say is certainly true in general, but there are a surprising number of specialists kicking around big tech companies who are not particularly fungible, and replacing them means likely poaching their counterpart from another firm. Those are the ones you really don't want to decide they'd have more fun working remote for a startup...