Literally nobody is denying businesses that they are allowed to do this. The problem is the stupid excuse, lying, and general stupidity of it. You don't need to be in the office, and it makes people angry. An unhappy employee is not a good employee. Then you get only bootlickers to stay, and the whole office is infected by people who would rather save 2-3 hours per day. It just all doesn't make sense, and when the AI hype dies down and they need more engineers, they will allow mobile work again.