If production of work from home was good there would be no need to change.
Managing remote work is a skill.
If organizations are ready to provide the systems and training for their managers to make it work, they can do so.
Unproductive remote workers is a huge tell that the organization is in disarray.
It's the other way around. Work has been outsourced, including overseas, for decades because the locals couldn't do it. (usually not enough of them, requiring paying enough to get people to relocate).
I know of very few people who work in a company or industry that isn't regional, if not global, and regularly work with others who could never meet face to face due to geography. Our remote staff is far better than the locals. It's not even close.
We also have individuals working on several projects and assigning them one desk wouldn't help them serve the multiple teams they're on.
Prior to the Scamdemic, the company was converting desks to ridiculous hoteling "work benches" (elbow-to-elbow seating along a desk-height countertop). Conversations were impossible so they created some meeting spaces. Now they're converting the meeting areas back to desks because they're ending the leases on entire floors and are going to consolidate space for those who do go into the office.