COVID-19 Outbreak Information Updates (Reboot) [over 150.000,000 US cases (est.), 6,422,520 US hospitilizations, 1,148,691 US deaths.]

I think companies are willing to take that chance. As more and more companies adopt a hybrid/flexible work model, employees won't have much choice if they only want to work remote. And from what I see here, I feel like this mandate has an intended, but not informed purpose to reduce headcount via attrition rather than layoffs. This reduces costs to the company by not paying out severance. For sure, some employees are deemed to be virtual and they are allowed to work remote. I also think that if a high performing employee is mandated to come in 3-5 days a week, but threatens to leave, the company has provided enough flexibility in the policy to make exceptions.
Companies that take that chance will regret it.

Many of them are tied into commercial real estate right now, so they are trying to force employees to suffer because of that.

There is really no good reason to force many employees to come to the office, and companies that adapt to maximizing remote work are going to be more successful going forward.