Regardless of whether you think about the RTO mandate, internally Amazon leaves it quite clear that the whole point of these leadership principles is to reduce ambiguity, which means drive decision-making in the absence of a clear direction.
This is absolutely not the case with RTO. There was a very clear and specific diktat from the very top of the organization. There was no ambiguity or void to fill in the decision-making process.
For that, Amazon also has a leadership principle: disagree and commit.
Also, prior to the pandemic Amazon was very clear that remote work was the exception and not the norm. For example, L4s were explicitly barred from WFO, and L5s and above had to explicitly request an exception in order to work partially from home.
It's ok to frame the debate on whether it's in the company's interest to enforce RTO. It's complete nonsense and utterly absurd to quote leadership principles to justify their position.
Also, I should add that Amazon's RTO mandate was pushed when the company was trying to cull their workforce. The general feeling was always that RTO was designed to push people out without paying severance. Citing "hire and develop the best" when ignoring how the company was decimating teams doesn't build up the critic's credibility.