Many of those I've known who've had to commute (especially to the mega-conurbations like London and New York) have not enjoyed the experience and the often miserable lengths of time it's eaten up of their waking day.
Many essential and other service workers can't afford to live anywhere near the city centres where their services are required, so have to commute. That adds to financial pressures and effectively extends the (unpaid) workday greatly. It's also added to the fragmentation of society over the years.
An old schoolfriend of mine I met up with last year described the absurd lengths he had to go to to get to and from work between suburbia and London by rail (he was in the diplomatic corps, so not exactly strapped like some). He and a few of his fellow commuters even ended up banding together as a gang to navigate through the near-nightly adventure of trying to get home against cancellations, re-routings etc. His season ticket probably cost him around £3,000+. It's money he'd no doubt have otherwise spent elsewhere, probably nearer to home, and possibly to greater macroeconomic benefit.
As people adapt to working from home (and as COVID restrictions are relaxed), they'll no doubt develop other routines, some of them maybe mimicking their patterns and habits when commuting for work. There'd be little to stop them taking a proper lunch hour and dining out if they wanted to, even arranging to meet up with workmates to alleviate the inevitable feelings of isolation. They and their families might even be able to eat out or go to entertainments, perhaps combined with a shopping trip, more often in the evenings with the money saved from travel costs and by virtue of not being utterly knackered during the working week.
So the economic activity doesn't necessarily disappear in a puff of smoke, it may get transferred to other locations, maybe smaller town centres and villages whose inhabitants have been watching them decline over the years to the situation where (like in the nearest town to me) empty retail spaces either just sit there or get filled with yet another charity shop that sometimes undercuts other shops in the area.
Another bunch who'll feel the pinch will be pension funds, which often invest in office space. That will have knock-on effects for many who assumed they were comfortably provided for.
There's some scope for converting unused and redundant office space into accommodation, but likely at quite an expense and restricting future options for the owners. And if these changes in work patterns continue, there may be less call for city and town centre living anyway.
I'm watching some of the claims from estate agents at the moment. There seems to be a (partly COVID-encouraged) drive among those who can afford it to seek to relocate to, or develop a second home in, the country (and in some cases, if the claims are to be believed, moving from England to Scotland, for instance). In the absence of restrictions on part-time habitation and without greater initiatives to provide affordable local accommodation, that's inevitably going to worsen local housing shortages and drive up what are often overheated property markets.
Still, if Brexit pans out as badly as it looks it may at the moment, relatively few of us are going to be working anyway, so there's that to look forward to and the problems may take care of themselves.
What I strongly doubt is that any attempts at scaremongering or bullying by the government or their mouthpiece newspapers are going to alter people's and companies' choices and decisions. It's the the holy market forces playing out, after all!
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