Yes, it only works (from the employers point of view) if the following are true:
1. the employee either genuinely enjoys the work or genuinely cares about the company
2. the employee has not become cynical about the company, even if (1) was originally true.
In most lines of work these are unlikely to be true for most people. However, software engineering can, if you're lucky, have an addictive quality and be intellectually enjoyable and intellectually meaningful. If that coincides with a decent company with decent people, then weirdly, remote working can result in people working hard away from the office. In my case, getting much more done away from the office because personally I can get nothing done in an open plan office with frequent meetings.
You left out the critical ingredient: the company has to have remote-first DNA. If they aren't set up to handle that style of employee, its going to result in a hire that feels isolated and who will very probably experience being passed over for anything interesting. Remote-first implies all kinds of things, up to and including having slack convos with someone sitting one desk over, and most companies just don't care enough to put the effort in to make a truly remote friendly workplace.
1. the employee either genuinely enjoys the work or genuinely cares about the company
2. the employee has not become cynical about the company, even if (1) was originally true.
In most lines of work these are unlikely to be true for most people. However, software engineering can, if you're lucky, have an addictive quality and be intellectually enjoyable and intellectually meaningful. If that coincides with a decent company with decent people, then weirdly, remote working can result in people working hard away from the office. In my case, getting much more done away from the office because personally I can get nothing done in an open plan office with frequent meetings.