... which is likely the real reason behind all the RTO propaganda we constantly see in news articles.
I have no idea what we're supposed to do about this. The ramifications of this aren't totally known yet so it's hard to imagine anybody has done the studies or economics to have a good answer
In my hometown I've seen mall that was converted to hotel. Could parts of the office buildings be converted to living spaces? One tower is for work, next one for living. It could cut down commute times for some. I've never lived in a big city so I don't know what would be the life in such buildings. Are there other things near by that you need, like schools, shops, pharmacies, cinemas, parks, etc.
It's apparently so hard and expensive to do so that for many building it defeats the purpose of converting. Some places it's cheaper to knock the building down and start over.
But I think that remote work is going to hollow out downtowns regardless. People are moving away from cities, not to them