So you think the needs of the [one] outweight the needs the of the [many]? That's the foundation of your sympathy card, right? Look, accomidations are made in any environment - but doesn't mean it's going to stop the idea that open-floor space is "bad" on the whole. Mihaly is in the minority, btw. The top things that motivate employees are not individualistic, silo achievement but rather derives from group/team building and worth of cultural acceptance into an environment. He's a nut - I took one of his lectures in my graduate program :) He's more interested in happiness than achievement in the end. I don't hire people to be "happy". I hire them to achieve things and become part of my culture.
So your saying that Steve McConnell and many other experienced developers are wrong.
Back in the 80's I was the core programmer on a map-reduce system that formed a part of one of the only 3 products British telecom sold internationally my CTO was one of Vint Cerfs reports.
And you might want to Google "flow state" and how that applies to development work.