As someone who started working remotely in _2012_, I don't agree in the least. Some people aren't cut out to work remotely, just like others aren't cut out to work in an office. Strict policies don't really benefit anyone.

There is also the matter of culture. If you don't intentionally set up a culture of being remote, it can be _really_ hard to implement it later, as COVID taught us. Some of the best teams I've ever worked for and the most productive engineering teams I've worked for were entirely remote.

As an aside, I also don't really "get it". If you work in a large enough org, you're going to eventually end up working with people who are at another site or whatever. You're effectively working with someone remotely in that case too, even if they're "on site" at another location. This is just as remote as a "real" remote job.