So what you're implying is that for roles where other companies do have managed to establish functioning remote work protocols, we should interpret RTO mandates as a public display of organizational dysfunction if they were unable to emulate those within the span of, oh, five years?

Also I'm pretty sure employers don't generally pay for, or care about, the commute times of employees…

Yes, especially for something creative and collaborative like engineering. Creating a culture where remote work works as well as in person is hard, and takes explicit effort and buying from management.

I agree to some degree - it's only hard at the very beginning. After that, it just becomes a part of the company culture. And you can feel it from the first days when you are onboarded or when you struggle with your first ticket.

Yes employers do care about commute. Commute time is one of the leading predictors of turnover, and it has a more dramatic effect on employee happiness vs higher salary. Also, it's de facto culture for programmers to work a little everywhere, on and off the clock (I'm not saying that's right, but it's reality).

A certain well known big defense company used to subsidize rent if you agreed to live closer.

at least where im working, team coordination was already dying to dead before covid lockdowns started because all the realted teams were moving to far off locations. the coordination improved with dedicated remote compared to conference room to conference room remote meetings