Yep. Hence the economic alarms about salaries being “too high”: remote work enables geo-arbitrage, which removes a significant portion of employer leverage.
If employees could buy their way out of the system, then, by definition, capital is leaving power and money on the table. And it absolutely loathes that.
They get what they pay for. Companies that offer remote jobs will be able to pick from and retain a wider gamut of talent. I suspect a lot of this RTO is related to the tech market just generally being down. Once things heat back up, recruiters will be knocking down doors to get people to interview for remote gigs just like before. It may take some time to get to that point though, because there are a number of factors at play currently that could prolong the depression in tech.
My contention is they won’t be able to sustain it, because either the wages will be uncompetitive or remote workers will pay off their houses and no longer need to work (as much).
Wages aren't even close to being high enough that companies won't able to afford workers. Developers in the standard ranges don't even need to consider what a company can afford when doing salary negotiations. With the exception of small businesses, it's about what they are _willing_ to pay, not what they are able to.
I'm not saying they can't afford high wages. I'm saying levels.fyi-scale wages for a few years in a normal housing market would leave an employee much pickier about companies/projects/conditions vs. someone who still needs to grind hard for his first 1BR in New York or San Francisco.
If employees could buy their way out of the system, then, by definition, capital is leaving power and money on the table. And it absolutely loathes that.