It’s often just easier to put people in some physical space and hope the social interactions make for some progress and unison, than to actually manage things with follow ups and communicated objectives etc etc.
I hate my loud, noisy open office and only had two people that I would consider friends. Not that I don’t like my coworkers, they are great to work with. I just haven’t hit it off with them on a personal level. But I am really missing the interaction with them. Even though my company is trying with virtual happy hours.