As being a manager, I'm sort of troubled with sweeping over generalizations of the benefits of the remote work. Somethings can be quantified and somethings cannot be. You can say that our team productivity and team velocity is staying the same or has gotten better, but whats the opportunity cost of not finding a great innovation or things getting better due to physical proximity?

I don't know the answer, but when I observe my own close circle of friends, every one of them have switched jobs since remote work came along. Do being part of the same team not matter anymore? Isn't it stressful for employers to retain talent? The salaries have sky rocketed ever since remote work came along. Didn't they?

From an employee perspective, while people enjoy working from home and not having to commute, many of them miss the physical interactions and the brainstorming and the bonding. I did a couple of system design interviews over remote and its so painful. Its hard to sketch things, its hard to use the tools and its hard to brainstorm.

IMO, there is a middle ground: like meet atleast once every two weeks or every month and then once ideas are Clear, remote or no remote doesn't make a difference.

That said, it's ironic for a company that wants to be a pioneer of the meta-world doesn't want its employees to be collaborating and working in the "META" world! Its sad and perhaps that explains why the meta-world sucks so much,