The US would never base their economy on stolen IP! Except until we stole enough to be #1: https://www.history.com/news/industrial-revolution-spies-europe

Long before the United States began accusing other countries of stealing ideas, the U.S. government encouraged intellectual piracy to catch up with England’s technological advances. 

Here is a case from America: https://www.litigationandtrial.com/2010/09/articles/series/special-comment/ebay-v-newmark-al-franken-was-right-corporations-are-legally-required-to-maximize-profits/

Some employees have also been pushing the company to supply data that support Jassy’s claims. During the session, Jassy said the company’s leadership looked at the data it has available and among other things, he said they didn’t feel that meetings were as effective from home as they were before. He added there are a lot of scenarios where the company has made some of its biggest decisions without perfect data

In other words: he has no actual data to support a return from WFH but has a lot of feelings.

Sounds to me like they hacked the bot net rather than used some universal backdoor into privately owned computers.