Every message of this sort gives me the distinct impression that I'm being lied to. I can't shake the feeling that they have a reason, but they're not willing to tell it to us because we would dislike that reason even more than no reason at all.
1. Employees slack more on average working from home. Employers want people stuck in a work-only place where they're monitored. Same as how open offices replaced cubicles "for cost reasons." I've seen evidence of this at my job.
2. They're heavily invested in physical offices in particular cities already, so much that they alone can sway the same real estate market they're invested in, and it's not a sunken cost yet.
Typically the tax incentives are deductible property tax, except sales tax, or some type of city provided R&D subsidy to help with state level taxes.
We received these back in 2010 with a 175 person game studio and we had 3 different cities pitching for us to move there. I have received outreach on even just a 5 person company. I can only imagine what cities will do with large employers.
They have extra-company reasons for RTO.
People who like being in charge pursue jobs where they're in charge. When you're a manager and you can't look around and see your minions hard at work, you don't feel like you're in charge.
It's really that simple.
I mean, really, why should I feel any loyalty if I know (and they know, too!) I'm lied to?