Some network devices and other kit became harder to find (or jumped in price) as people upgraded their home environments for working from home. While many buying for themselves would have stuck with even cheaper consumer-grade kit, companies that wanted to monitor/manage their remote workers' network would have wanted something that is possible to monitor/manage from afar (which a bog standard “dumb switch” wouldn't offer).
Oh the horror, does that actually happen ?
Yes, but rarely. Usually in "high security" businesses worried about exfiltration of client data or other company secrets & data assets, when it is done. Basically they give you a work network extension at home that piggy-backs on your connection but keeps itself segregated from the rest of your home network (so hopefully not monitoring that, but you never know!) via VPN and managed switch/router. Like a normal VPN-from-home scenario but with more careful control/monitoring as if your location were a fuller satellite office. Potentially useful for support too, though that is a beneficial side effect rather than a reason to go to the extra effort.