Don’t think Google made that demand, but I may be wrong.
I work for a software dev, and it’s heavenly. We’re pretty much all remote since the pandemic, but we’ve contracted back to a single office/headquarters, which is often nearly empty. But it’s a nice place when we need to pull together.
My team was out to dinner with the CEO and VPs one night and the CEO was discussing the virtues of in-person office work. And yes, there are solid benefits to collaborating in person, many benefits. I don’t believe they outweigh WFH in general, especially for a company like ours. The voluntary hybrid approach is working great for us.
I related a story I found on reddit. Software dev recruiter was laughing about his “hit list”. He kept track of local companies starting to mandate a return to office. “LMAO, picking up those employees for WFH offers was like shooting fish in a barrel!” Quite the cautionary tale!