[indogooner]

  >>> As someone working for AWS, better uptime, lower costs, and higher feature throughput. How about justifying return to office with hard numbers showing that we've fallen short on those points instead of just handwaving that "it's better"

This is the most logical argument I have read on this post. Surely forcing a decent percentage even if not majority to come to office would not improve productivity. I have seen most water cooler talks which are just gossiping and not about the aha breakthrough you stumble upon when talking to a co-worker.