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Notes -
It seems like the 8-5 M-F was replaced by a new norm of salaried workers being on call 24/7 and their exact scheduling not being relevant as long as they did the actual jobs they're hired to do.
This has obvious benefits to employers; I doubt major white collar employers ever particularly cared if you did most of your work at 2 am on saturday as long as it got done, and 24/7 on call for all white collar employees is, from the employers perspective, a plus.
I do not work a salaried job, so this is just observations. But it seems like it's not necessarily a bad deal for companies, all told.
There was definitely a default expectation among white collar work pre-covid that you'd be in the office during working hours. Not a hard and fast rule, plenty of exceptions, no one batted an eye if you needed to take an afternoon off to run an errand, but generally expectation was to be in the office.
And it is somewhat harder to slack off if you're in the office. Your screen is visible and you don't have as many other temptations.
Honestly, I was probably more productive when I was in the office five days per week. Now it's much easier to spend a few hours on The Motte, or to go get groceries, or wander over to the living room and watch an episode of TV.
You're right that getting your work done is the ultimate check, but it's an elastic check... most of these jobs have some play in how much work a particular person has to do, and it isn't always easy to measure. So the old equilibrium was a combination of (loosely) measuring output and (loosely) enforcing butts in seats.
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