I think the way Southwest does the seating makes perfect sense. Nobody 'rushes the plane'. Everybody lines up in order and gets on. They sit down faster. If somebody gets all torqued out because they didn't get their favorite chair it's their problem, not the way Southwest does it. In my opinion we all get on a lot faster because you don't have somebody in row three fussing with the overhead while rows 4-40 wait for them. For some reason, the various algorithms for how to get assigned seat people on are all slower than 'get on and sit down wherever.' I think because for the most part, people don't stop at row 3 when they're not assigned to it but they, after they use up the exit seats, got to where they are out of the way.

Some total outlier because of some guy that spent a little too much time in the airport bar isn't indicative of a systemic issue.