[OJFord]

I'm not so sure about that, scientists need labs, academics have labs and lecture theatres, lawyers (some of the time) need courts and to meet clients or counterparties, very few doctors can work from home a non-trivial amount, etc.

I agree it's unusual for something we call engineering, but I don't think needing more than a computer is that unusual for 'knowledge work'. A lot of finance has been more changed by computers than professions like accounting say which you could roughly say just swapped paper for computers and always could've been done from home to a similar extent. I suppose it's the internet being the significant piece, or just needed as well as computers themselves.