But based on that anecdote, unless I am missing something (possible), it just sounds like the boss is stating they miss seeing people in the office. OP said their boss frequently says they don’t mind employees working from home. What it sounds like is two things are true: (1) the boss doesn’t care if employees work from the office or home and (2) the boss misses seeing people at work because it’s nice for them to have in-person social interactions.
Also, to be blunt, using productivity as the marker of an effective workforce is how you end up with hellholes like Tesla or Facebook. Morale matters for quality of output. Anyway, effective managers know that their teams will have both people who prefer to be in office and people who prefer to WFH, so will create schedules that work great for everyone.