You think that executives are forcing developers to come into the office so that they can play politics with their subordinates?

They don't play politics with their subordinates, they play politics with their peers and their superiors. Developers are "human resources" - resources are there to be exploited, not catered for.

That's my point, hence the parent's explanation doesn't make sense.

They mostly play politics with their peers, they need on site presence for that.

They also need to keep an eye on developers and need to feel thigs out, the relationship, their management status known and so forth.

That's very hard to do remotely and they feel their status diminished to that of the "resources" they manage.

Probably yes

Yes.

Yes.