I dislike RTO for one simple reason . I'm not at work to make friends, I'm not at work to chit chat. I'm not at work so we can talk about who won the last football game . I go to work in exchange for currency, which is required to acquire goods and services. All this other crap, all these holiday parties, all of this let's dance in diversity videos, no that's not what I'm here for . Most of the time coming to the off…
The main important factor IMO is mentorship of junior talent. (I'm speaking for technical orgs)
Viewing the organization as a living organism where an employee is a "cell", then there are material benefits in the "cellular replication" of talent and rejuvenation of the next generation.
It can definitely be true that RTO is worse for an individual engineer but better for the health of the organization long-term. Both can be true.
In my experience, remote only companies tend to prefer a higher ratio of senior employees for this reason. It's plug-an-play.