1. Excellent point on the ergonomics of the seats. The seats themselves can make a HUGE difference. E.g. compare short/medium-haul Y seats on AF A320 fleet (and by that I mean A318, A319, A320, A321) and KL 737 fleet - a world of difference; the KL Recaro seats are vastly superior.
Apparently though, airlines don't like to actually spend money on those seats and make them comfortable. They tout the lie-flats, suites and all that, but hardly ever advertise comfort in Y, because they don't really care about people in Y. I think that time has shown that most Y pax care more about the price and would gladly stand for 10 hours to save $0.15.
2. The pillow thing is limited to US pax. I haven't seen European "pillow folk", for example. I've wondered about this myself and I can't wrap my head around the fact that in Y you generally have fairly little room to play with. Add giant pillow ... and you're seriously crowding yourself in there. On long haul flights I often see blankets and pillows thrown on the floor (as they protrude in the pax personal space) and I can't imagine how crammed it would feel to add a big pillow in the already small space. To answer the author though, I suppose the manly thing to do is bring a mattress on the flight.
