I genuinely think this is one of the biggest reasons that there's a push for people to return to office. A lot of CEOs and similar positions either feel embarrassed by how an empty office looks, or outright fear for their job. They think a bustling office simply looks better for their company, especially to outsiders.

Honestly, it probably does, but I don't think it's worth the cost. An utterly insane amount of time is wasted commuting. All that commuting also has environmental impact and basically means you're paid less. How many skilled employees will those businesses lose to competitors that will allow working from home?