Commute really is key. When I used to have a 15-minute bike commute, I voluntarily went to the office five days a week. The 30 minutes spent each day is just good exercise.
Now I take the train that's 30 minutes long each way. I don't get the benefit of exercise, the time spent is doubled, and now I'm only going to the office three days a week.
Not sure which trains you're taking but any I've been on during peak times are standing room crush, no space for laptops or working
Most trains I've commuted on (in the Netherlands and Germany this is) weren't like that 9 out of 10 days. How well you can work differs per line, year, time of day, and type of train, but overall I'd agree more with GP than with your experience. Both exist, of course
Sure. That's a very biased way of looking at things. RBs/REs, and even S-/U-Bahn are likely to have ample seating even during "rush hours" in most of Germany. But it sounds like you've never seen cities like London during rush hour? Tubes are tightly packed with people. Even if you get a seat, it's unlikely you'll feel comfortable bringing out your laptop. I've got a friend who does indeed commute ~50min to Cambridge by train and gets some work done. But that's rather the exception for a city like London. Many people will have similarly long commutes just being stuck inside the tube with little space to maneuver.
It's really more complicated than this, because often commute has an inverse relationship with cost. The longer you commute, the more you save.
Sure, you could say going to office isn't too bad if you're 15 minutes away. But at 15 minutes away you're paying double for housing than if you were 90 minutes away. So even in the ideal scenario, RTO can be perceived as a huge pay cut.
At least you can be productive ish on the train, sitting in the car for a daily dose of near death experience is even worse.