I generally agree with you, though I haven't flown in like 20 years because of the situation with airplanes, so I happen to think if they're going to pack you in like sardines they should just disable the reclining feature cause there comes a point where any reclining at all is just making things markedly worse for the people behind you.
A combination of the TSA (security theater; jump through a bunch of bullshit hoops just so you feel safe without actually making you any safer) and airlines cramming more people into the same amount of space to increase their profits.