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I would say yes, but I'm not sure I could articulate my argument very well. I don't think that they explicitly care about it, i.e. "control of our employee is $x which we accept as a cost of doing business". I think it's more indirect, more secondary, like it's a result of other more surface-level concerns. For example, "we need employees in the office so that we can make sure they are working so that we are ensuring we get our money's worth", which possibly has effects that mirror the 'nebulous notion of control' we're talking about. I think your comment is correct in a literal sense. Doubtful anyone is sitting at the top of a tower rubbing their hands together, scheming, trying to establish/maintain prison-like employment conditions.