I had one (contractor) job where technically hotdesking was in use. Since there were enough desks everyone sat at “their” desk every day.
But when I visited an office at the other end of the country I just sat at a desk, logged in and my desktop was still running.
Hotdesking with thin clients done well is actually quite nice, disconnect at the end of the day, pick up where you left off tomorrow, when you rock up to a desk in an office several hundred miles away - hopefully that long running task you kicked off will have finished in the meantime.
IT have easy backups, and trivial upgrades (they just happen when you eventually log off - your next login is to the new image)...
It might be old fashioned, but it really worked well.
Yes there are *many* ways to do it badly!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
