And employers love them because if people take them home overnight they only need security / insurance for peripherals. The only fixed PCs I still see in offices are low cost / bulk Dell machines only good for office work or thin clients, and even those go back ~15 years now, at a bank that already had relatively tight security.
I wish I could have a job where I work on a desktop machine and could just leave things at the office when I leave for the day. Alas.
I have a relatively high-end desktop with a nice monitor. I also have an aging laptop with a tiny screen and an anemic amount of RAM. Most of my computing ends up being done on the laptop.
With a family and a kid, it turns out I’d prefer to spend most of my time at the computer in common spaces; at the dinner table, on the couch, etc. so that I’m present and available for my family. This is far better than squirreling myself away in a room.
(Note that for work, I have a different computer, I’m talking about for life outside of work.)
The conflicts arise when all you do is work. Every second of every day does not need to be spent staring at your children and still be a good parent.
I often sit with my kids and get a little work done on the couch while they're entertaining themselves. I can engage where appropriate, and of course I don't spend my entire life working. This flexibility allows me time to walk them to school, pick them up from school, leave early to go to their sports things, band concerts, or just play outside with them.
I have a kind of strict separation between home and work and I have since I started working remotely.
When I’m “at work” in my home office. I’m not to be disturbed. When I’m “off work” my computer is shut down until the next day and I get on with the rest of my life - which doesn’t involve computers.
That sets strict expectations from everyone in my home.
I’m glad that works for you and your family. For me, I thrive from taking breaks during the day with my family and having the ability to catch up and work when the ideas hit me. That’s what’s wonderful about remote work, both our styles can be accommodated, we can be there when our families need us, and we can both be our most effective selves.
Even multiple rooms in your home is compelling enough for many people, but for me it's about taking it on trips. Obviously you don't always want to take your computer on vacation, but sometimes I want to visit a friend and work from there, or go visit my family and work on a project while I'm there, that kind of thing.
On a smaller scale, I often bring my computer to the roof of my building or to a library or cafe. I can understand preferring the constraint of "when I leave my desk I don't have to think about the computer anymore", but for me all the additional flexibility is a good tradeoff.
