Those are worse! Can't stretch my legs. and no place for a carryon
My question was posed to show the dilemma between making a choice worse for you but doesn't impose your problem (long legs) onto the innocent person in front of you, or getting a seat more convenient for you but requires the person in front of you to accommodate your comfort to their own discomfort.
That's why I said up-thread that this all began when the airlines kept stuffing more and more rows into a plane. Over the years I began to realize that it was becoming harder and harder to put my same carry-on bag under the seat in front of me because the space between seats got to the point where my bag wouldn't fit between them to get to the floor.
The airline's dilemma is to remove a few rows to appease the customers and reduce the number of conflicts between passengers, or to make it even worse for the passengers (no reclining at all) but make more profit for the airline. One would think that market forces might entice one airline to remove a row in economy and give everyone else a few more inches of legroom as an advertising campaign. They might lose a few dollars per flight but make it up in volume over time as some people make that airline their first choice in the future.
Instead, as this article indicates, the airlines are making it worse for passengers in economy class as a way of getting them to upgrade to the oxymoronic "premium economy."
-PJ