[joshuamorton]

I think the thing you may be missing is that almost all of those offices are in Europe, Asia, or Oceania. I know my coworkers (I work at Google) in those locations are largely back in the office some, and excited by that.

Having worked from the Zurich office myself previously, most people are within walking/biking/a 5 minute train ride to the office, so commute concerns that we have in the US aren't relevant.

Similarly, most people in those locations live in apartments or condos and so may not have a space to make a home office. Returning to the office to make use of the (superior) workspace in the office. I can say that for example on my team, around half of my coworkers (whose offices are open) are consistently in the office.