It's like when Vice spilled the beans on late nite Chinese restaurants serving "cold tea" after legal hours for alcohol. Completely ruined it for everyone. Some things don't need to be whistleblown.
I've been working in tech since 2008. Nobody ever cared where anyone worked from. I've spent many summers digital nomadding.
Then, the pandemic happened and some reporters started writing articles about it, as if it was invented during the pandemic. HR departments got wind, and now many companies have formal policies about how many days you're supposed to badge in, or how long you're allowed to work remotely.
There's a journalistic trend churning out bullshit stories about "quiet quitting" et. al. and I hate it. Executives take them at face value and make reactionary policies based on some filler they read online.
Was it really this way in general or just with some little startups who didn’t mind taking risks? As far as I remember employers always cared where remote workers were for tax and other reasons (sanctions, compliance with local regulations, etc).
And then you run into some country that doesn't think it's cool. The US has just joined the club of countries who arrest people on that basis, but there have been quite a few others for a while.