I think its fair to say that RTO is not about data, or studies, or about anything really. Leaders across all industries have decided people are coming back. Perhaps there is a secret cabal of commercial office space lenders who are putting pressure as share holders, or some other conspiracy theory. But it's happening - no one can do anything about it (except vote with your feet), and no one is going to get better acc…
In a sense, I think this is much of it.
Commercial real estate used to be a fairly predictable investment. Costs were mostly predictable, rents would increase over time, etc.
Now, we have all these vacant buildings and it's highly disruptive to the investors and owners of those buildings. You have companies in the middle of 5, 10, 15 year leases, and they're paying on those spaces with no hope of getting out of the contract. So the companies have a large incentive to justify that spend, which is really only going to happen by utilizing the space, which means in-office work.
I think if there was a viable way for these lessors to get out of those obligations we would see more of an embrace of WFH or hybrid work.
There is also part of the issue where for some people and tasks, an in-office scenario is higher net productivity to the company (but not necessarily the employees).
Additionally, you also have companies where a large contingent of the workforce can't WFH (eg: manufacturing, assembly, etc.). It creates animosity among the workers when the higher paid people also have the luxury of not needing to come to a physical location.
Overall, I think the deck is stacked against WFH becoming a long-term trend for a majority of the workforce. I think it will become a more common perk, something that is earned and not granted.