I don't see why common sense hasn't prevailed on this topic after being beaten to death for years. The only ones who can decide whether telecommuting or remote working makes sense are the managers of each company asking themselves that question. There are too many variables, and no obvious answer. The best researchers should strive for is to identify the common variables with their inputs & outputs, and publicize that information to biz execs and hiring managers.

Anecdote: only 4 of the top 10 tech staff at my company are based in offices. Just a few months after our CEO made some backhanded comments about that statistic, he hired an EVP who also works from home (and who brought 3 VPs with him, all of whom are also WFHers). ymmv.