When I started my first professional software development job in 1991, I got my very own, fairly large, office. I kept the door closed most of the time, and was very productive. This (having one's own office) continued in my career with various companies until I started my own software company in 1998, where I have continued the trend.
My point being that it was the norm for a long time to provide software developers their own office. I'm not sure when or why this stopped occurring, but it needs to be reversed for one simple reason: good, young, software developers don't become HPEs without first being given the environment in which to develop the concentration and skills necessary to do so.
Yeah, like anything else you need to examine your needs.
I'm a transplant; I work on a tiny isolated team, in a sea of a much larger unrelated team. I know what I need to work on and can largely do it in isolation. But I'm constantly distracted by the people around me with discussions that could never possibly have anything to contribute to my work, nor I theirs. And that's when they're discussing work issues. The inane personal conversations are the worst.
My point being that it was the norm for a long time to provide software developers their own office. I'm not sure when or why this stopped occurring, but it needs to be reversed for one simple reason: good, young, software developers don't become HPEs without first being given the environment in which to develop the concentration and skills necessary to do so.