I don't think it's generally about selfishly wanting alone time, it's understanding that a lot of people can be far more productive when they have some space an

I don't think it's generally about selfishly wanting alone time, it's understanding that a lot of people can be far more productive when they have some space and quiet to get work done, free of constant distractions. The more intense focus the work requires the more true this is. I would agree that it's not good for engineers to want alone time to the point where team communication significantly suffers, but a lot of open offices swing the balance too far in the other direction where it's hard to write code that requires you to carve out blocks of working memory in order to get things done. Also, I've yet to find noise cancelling headphones that are so effective that an open office wouldn't bother me at a all and I don't want have to listen to loud music to block out other noise - that's distracting in itself. That's not to mention visual distractions as well. I think ultimately there has to be a balance between space to focus and low barriers to communication, many companies handle this by letting people work from home, Apple I imagine has the budget to find an even better solution.