I don’t have a great answer for you, but I will say that leadership’s lack of data / concrete reasoning was the most jarring aspect.
Throughout the company, data was used to make decisions. Without data, documents would be rejected and projects put on hold. So why is this mandate lacking data? It managed to ruin a lot of trust that employees had placed on leadership.
Easy: it's a decision made by the S team who can get away with not justifying themselves to ICs. They usually would show their working even though they don't have to, but in this case that would reveal their true reasoning (stealth layoffs, pressure from local governments who gave tax incentives to build now empty offices). So, they make up some stuff about RTO increasing innovation.
Throughout the company, data was used to make decisions. Without data, documents would be rejected and projects put on hold. So why is this mandate lacking data? It managed to ruin a lot of trust that employees had placed on leadership.