I've visited a couple of cubicle farms in the US and spent a couple of weeks in a place in Sweden where everyone had a completely separate office. For me, workplaces are more depressing the more people are walled off from each other.
I get that some people prefer to be alone, but these days why not work remotely?
Leave your walls, collaborate in the collaboration areas, care less about how loud you're being when you get animated about something you're enjoying working on or your new ideas; because you're not killing the focus of the people in their focus areas.
Good work requires variation, collaboration and focus. So, for me how it sounds when you say this is: "people who are given the capability to focus really bum me out"
That's a rather uncharitable way to interpret it. I've merely stated my own preferences, not judged others for theirs. Why would you think it's the fact that others are being given the capability to focus that bums me out like some sort of grinch, rather than (as is the case) that I don't like being physically blocked from interaction with the people around me?
As for the requirements of "good work", those vary with the nature of the job. One of the reasons I've always worked in an open plan office, aside from them being much more common in the UK, is that I work in finance, often on or close to trading floors. That's not an environment that benefits from cubicles and I believe they're rare in this industry in the US too.
But mainly, it's what I'm used to and what I like. I never said you had to feel the same.
I get that some people prefer to be alone, but these days why not work remotely?