I am in a position where I could work remotely, and I would like to, but for one reason: career advancement. I am pretty early on in my career (about 5 years in), and I have basically two competing routes ahead of me A) be a highly technical dev who will be a high value "mercenary" type or B) move into a technical lead/CTO type role. I always thought that I wanted to do be A, but as I have gotten into product design, building up a team, mentoring, negotiating deals, etc. I have found that I really enjoy B. Being a lone wolf type dev is almost ideal in a remote setting (all of my clients are already off site anyway). Being a manager, technical lead, or anyone core to a business team, however, seems a lot more difficult to pull off.

I used to love the idea of working as that story book hacker who can spin out code from a laptop in an RV traveling where ever the wind took me. I work with a guy who literally owns a laptop, a suitcase, and the clothes and toiletries to fill it. Every morning I talk to him he could be in German, Brazil, Japan, or where ever the hell he feels like going. That is awesome, and I highly respect anyone with the spine to live that way, but...

At the same time, I want to be in the fight, shaping people instead of just machines. I want to be able to shake the hands of the people I work with, and look my competitors in the eye. For now anyway, I am sticking to the office and reaping the career rewards of being a central figure to my team.

TLDR: work can be done from anywhere; leadership.. not as clear.