Comment by advael
I think the most compelling explanation is that control over workers is more important than productivity to the leadership of many of these companies
Perhaps especially in the case of larger companies, sunk costs on office space may be a factor
The latter means you are positing management incompetent enough that they do not understand that sunk costs should be ignored? I am not saying you are wrong, BTW.
Even worse, in many cases the costs are not entirely sunk. You might be able to get out of a lease with a penalty, if you own the buildings you can sell them. In either case its cheaper to keep a building unused than to run it as an office.