The primary issue in this is that for years, both organizations and people have accepted that inside the office is the way that work has always been conducted (not true, by the way), that working in the office is an fundamental, unchangeable human nature and the only way which work can be done, and all attention to keep people happy at work is to iteratively improve by putting foosball table and catered lunches in the office.

So, when COVID showed that working from home is possible, even more efficient at times, against the perceived human nature to show that change can happen and the office isn't even NEEDED, the cynicism kicked in: to admit that work from home regularly is even possible would be to admit that the previous system was fundamentally wrong, and that having a giant office at all is ultimately a waste of money, which is why they are so desperate to revert and remove work from home to somehow justify paying for an office for all these years and that things can never change for the better, ever, and the broken system was to be always accepted.

It's a form of expression of despair, and despair often isn't logical.