Have you actually taken a bus into Seattle? It's not much of a choice between the $1.5M house near the office and the $350k house twice the size 40 minutes away.
I've only been to Seattle a few times (though I did ride the bus downtown from the airport before the airport Link was built). My understanding is that Seattle has a robust suburban commuter bus and ferry network (though admittedly, a lacking commuter rail network...).
Here in Chicago, I believe Amazon has offices at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Center_(Chicago) which is a place where driving makes very little sense.