I hear this opinion on Reddit as well. Yes, it is possible to get "tons of exercise" on your own using body weight, but it is not the same as barbell strength training. You are much more limited because actual strength training is a somewhat scientific process of progressive overload--adding 2-5 pounds per workout to an exercise. You cannot do this easily/precisely with body weight exercises, and additionally there is a reason the barbell is shaped as it is--to maximize the ability to support and balance the weight.
The argument that nobody "needs" gym access is akin to arguing nobody "needs" restaurants--they can all just cook their own food. Or nobody "needs" grocery stores--they can just grow/raise all their own food.
That's not what this comment thread is discussing though. Nobody claims you can swim just as well at home as you can in a swimming pool. What is being discussed was this:
> I wonder how many people have been forced into a "sedentary" life style by COVID-19...
So to go from "you're forced to be sedentary" to "but you cannot badminton, so this is wrong" is a strange non sequitur.
It is what the comment I was responding to was discussing. It acknowledges in it's second sentence that it's possible to get some kind of exercise but states that it's different enough that it makes perfect sense to say that COVID caused some people to become sedentary.
it's absurd to say that you're limited by body weight exercises. there are so many "scientific process" body weight regimes to choose from. barbell training has such a high barrier for entry for so many people when really most people just need to do something.
The argument that nobody "needs" gym access is akin to arguing nobody "needs" restaurants--they can all just cook their own food. Or nobody "needs" grocery stores--they can just grow/raise all their own food.