EDIT: You specifically asked for the economic motive, real estate real estate real estate. Big office buildings charge rent and if you have people working from home, those buildings become money sinks that can’t be justified. So for managers personally there isn’t economic incentive, but for “the economy” to run on a whole there needs to be inflated real estate or else FIRE investments will crumble.

The purpose of most office jobs in a social sense is not provide any social good. The purpose is to keep the workers occupied with endless busywork so they don’t organize politically or god forbid do something creative and fulfilling that isn’t monetized. Keeping workers in a windlowless cubicle with a horrible commute eats up their free time so they have to spend money to get fast entertainment.

But it’s also just a window into the PMC mindset of wanting to control people. That’s what they want and enjoy, is bossing people around arbitrarily. How many stories have we heard of managers getting mad because somebody did something without their approval or a different way? Working from home means they can’t physically moniter them, they feel worthless without bossing people around constantly. If managers have to work from home (or have majority of staff WFH) then they have to grapple with the reality they are useless leeches.