Technology

It's a way to filter out people, for good or ill.

Depending on the group/team/organization, physical presence makes a huge difference.

Even though I can work from home at will, I still go to the office a lot, about 60%-70% of my time is there. Physical presence just makes a lot of things easier, and it makes teams more cohesive. I can't imagine spending less time at the office - those random hallway conversations make a world of difference. If you're not there for the convo, they'll tap someone else, not by design or intention, just by that person being in front of them.

Now a call center? Maybe not so much, though I was once on a call center team and the ability to tap a teammate on the shoulder was a big help. Much better than using chat tools. So it really depends on the organization.

And then there's management that need you there to justify their role. That's just a poorly managed company, when senior management permits that (though some of them need their own staff count to justify their roles).