If you have seen the movie, it explains the 3 parts of a magic trick – the pledge, the turn and the prestige. The prestige is the final reveal and the pay-off that gets the audience to cheer. This is where the magician takes the bow.
The movie shows how unhappy Hugh Jackman's character gets to give the prestige to a body double. The crowd and the cheer is the ego boost that is denied to him.
And the same happens for workers that work from home. Their absence denies the higher ups that ego boost, that audience, the crowd that looks upto them in a full office. The Prestige.
Their need to have workers back in office… It is not about productivity. It is about prestige.