Knowing exactly how much money a large office space costs and constantly coming in only to see it very empty makes them want to see it used more.

That is an argument to downsize at lower cost, not to return to the office.

Face to face communication is better than the alternative. Full stop.

Absolutely not. Teams calls with ability to share screen are superior to face to face meetings. Teams meetings take less time, are more efficient and more convenient. Camera is needed.

The executive mindset is probably that people goof off less in the office.

This is about managerial oversight and individual staff.

If you want to lay people off, forcing RTO is a good way to get people to leave voluntarily.

It is not. If you want to make people redundant, you need to target crap workers, not good workers. And it is good workers which are more likely to leave if you try to force them back.

There's likely a sense of "the way things have always been done" being inherently better in the minds of some executives pushing RTO.

Sadly, but it is irrational.