It's possible to coast by looking for superficial signs your team is busy when everyone is in the office.
In fact, that same effect goes all the way up: You'll find higher management sometimes look for idiotic signs in their reports, such as whether they see them walking the floor. So then of course a lot of managers will be walking the floors and using looking for signs people are busy as a management technique. One of the few times I've ever gotten dinged in performance reviews was in one of my early roles managing a team when I was told I wasn't being seen being visible enough. There were no issues with productivity or deliverables, or staff retention or anything else - I wasn't seen engaging in the rituals that were expected. So after that I made an effort to walk around the office now and again, and all was well and nothing gained, except my reviews improved.
Once teams of managers who bought into this approach are suddenly remote these people are forced to learn how to actually manage for outcomes, and that is a big step change in difficulty and effort.
In other words, expect the most resistance in organizations where managers have not been used to managing remote staff members and so have never been forced to learn or get used to the skills.