>We are animals. ... As such, cubicles are pretty much a nightmare.

and open space plan even more so if you don't get your desk placed so that your back is to the wall and you're facing "the space". In low density office this results in people's desks placed along the walls with emptiness in the center, ie. waste of space compare to cubicles, in high density - people in the middle are miserable (speaking from the fact, we have 2 very similar buildings on the campus - both open space, one is low density and another is heavily populated).