As others have written, Apple's argument comes down to whether people on different projects talk at the water cooler. I thought Apple was aggressively siloed, where communication between projects had similarity to governmental security handling... I assume people working on a single project are able to chat/communicate however they are located or organized. If they can't talk about work with others due to it being compartmentalized, why are they required to go to the office?
Yeah, there's this big racetrack that has to be justified. Maybe one's house isn't sufficiently secure so that "nefarious types" can scan what you do and determine what Apple's up to. But then, who all likes to work in such an environment? Many don't like government security. There's growing resentment against tech-company data collection - are they going to be willing to work in a black box or Faraday cage?
Or are we merely listening to the dinosaurs after the comet hit but before the shockwave arrived? We'll know when the success and failure of companies is reviewed in 5-10 years.
