To be clear, I agree they are not meaningfully equivalent. I just meant to say that they are the best options other than remote, especially if you consider that

To be clear, I agree they are not meaningfully equivalent. I just meant to say that they are the best options other than remote, especially if you consider that private offices haven't been common for software developers for over 30 years. Private offices are awesome and cubicles are tolerable to fine depending on your coworkers. Open offices are almost invariably terrible for employees - although I have to say that I was once in a large room with a (often closed) door along 5 other engineers as a sort of "private open office" and that was actually okay.