At a few companies I've worked at, remote wasn't viable due to hardware development. It was difficult and expensive to replicate test setups for remote employees when unit costs for some of these devices range from 10 to 100k USD (e.g., VNAs).
I once set up a remote testing rig for hardware approximately ranging in the $1-10k order of magnitude for my own development. The setup time, cost of remotifying hardware, and convenience were much cheaper than replacing the hardware elsewhere.
VNA=Vector Network Analyzer?
Given the price range, yes. Even though USD 10K sounds a bit too low for a VNA, even a simple one.