>I once had a boss that saw my desk and started complaining to HR that it was too big, and if we can split this desk into 2 to save on office space.

ooh, I know the perfect way to save on office space...

as is the theme of 2023/4, Companies want to pretend they want X, but then make X as miserable as possible because the real reason is Y (anywhere from taxes, to sunk cost fallacy, to lack of trust in workers, etc).