Programming (as I like to call it) is most certainly a skill. You need Logic, problem solving and creativity. The current state of AI, with all it's touchy-feely algorithms will not be up to the task anytime.
And if your only skill is coding in one computer language, you should have upped you skill set along time ago
To many employers are requiring RTO, for no other reason than to give their middle managers a feeling of power and we don't want to go back.
Many times the job is getting done better and faster than when seated in an office. Remote work also does away with the long commute
I was taking business away from TDS, until they got the FCC to allow them to change their tariffs. T-1 circuits for an ISP more than quadrupled overnight. But only for ISPs. If you were the hospital and you wanted a T-1 you got the old rate. I did not have the finances to put up a legal fight; needless to say I was forced out of business.
TDS is getting whats coming to them.