Why do some employees prefer working remotely, while others would rather work in an office?

Echoing similar comments ... it is definitely personality based.  We have entered into a default approach where everyone is remote unless they have an explicit need or desire to work in an office.  Consistently those working remotely see the policy as a benefit for working in our organization.  
Interviewing team members and candidates on their preferences and those who raise their hand for an office/cube allocation consistently prefer the in-person interactions and direct proximity to our user community.  A theme between the two approaches has been the employee's desire to separate work-life balance.  

There are pros and cons for both. It depends on your situation and personality type. I know lot of employees working remotely for a prolonged period of time find that they missed the physical interactions and collaboration that come from office environments. Some are more productive remotely as they cut driving time, imaging you spend an hour driving to work every morning, instead you can exercise or meditate and start the working day with much more energy and focus.
Just a few examples that there are pros/cons for both approaches.
I personally prefer a hybrid work model, while I like the ability to work from home I also see the value in an office environment and meeting/talking in person

Generally speaking, those of us who have spent our careers working for our customers as a professional services resource, have become so comfortable being outside of corporate offices that we prefer being remote to being in an office environment. I believe that the comfort level stems from our ability to be a self directed worker, solving complex problems, without the need to justify each step toward the resolution to our superiors. This provides us with a much greater degree of autonomy and flexibility in our approach and facilitates the development of corporate trust in our decision making. 

Employees with children can really get in a bind if the kids get sick or they have daycare issues. This was a real problem during Covid but continues due to staffing issues and other Covid and Covid-like flareups. I lost a couple of employees because we do not support work-from-home. I recently heard about a company that offered a certain number of sick-leave days but also allotted a number of work-from-home days as well. That would be ideal.

I have found most experienced employees love the ability to work from home.  No commute and they put in more hours and I believe are more productive.   The issues is new employees to be mentored or recent grades.    Also, what is the long term team impact of mainly remote.  We have a designated in office day each week mainly to keep up teamwork and bring lunch in.  For tech employees, being able to work remote has been come a significant issue for hiring or staying with the job.  FInally, with covid, it opened up nationwide hiring due to remote abilities.  So our % of teams local to an office has dropped.