That's like saying remote instruction was a solved problem before Covid. The problem with the pandemic was that almost every student in the country was suddenl

That's like saying remote instruction was a solved problem before Covid. The problem with the pandemic was that almost every student in the country was suddenly thrown into a remote situation, and nobody was prepared for that. It's the same with remote work. It may have been a "solved problem" before the pandemic (and I personally WFH before the pandemic), but nobody was prepared for a huge portion of the country's workforce to be suddenly thrown into remote work.