All of these are just half-assed, incomplete attempts to solve problems that were already solved by private offices.

You don't have to worry about a sick person sitting 3 feet away from you if you have a private office.

You don't need to wear a mask sitting at your desk all day if you have a private office.

You don't need specialized "focus rooms" if you have private offices.

You don't need specialized break-out rooms for small informal meetings if people have private offices.

You don't need to call a robot to set up a balloon wall (which won't block sound anyway) every time you want to make a phone call if you have a private office.

If you want people not to work from home, a private office gives them many of the advantages that make them more productive when working from home.

Open office was never about collaboration, it was about cramming more people into less space and the fact that furniture depreciates faster than walls. But, it's not like Google couldn't afford private offices if they wanted to.

Edit: keep adding more as I think of them.

> Google is also trying to end the fight over the office temperature. This system allows every seat to have its own air diffuser to control the direction or amount of air blowing on them.

This is insane. It's the same principle as having separate "driver" and "passenger" temperature controls in a car. You're all in the same box of air. The temperature is going to even out to the average. Maintaining comfort by constantly blowing a person's preferred temperature air on them - only to have it canceled out by the person next to them blowing a different temperature air - is an enormous waste of energy. You know what would give people actual control of the temperature in their space? You guessed it - private offices.