Many of the OP's points are valid. I can't, however, agree with the argument about not having the general safety announcements on every flight. The fact that the OP (and most people on these boards) fly frequently doesn't mean that this is true of everyone: patently it is not, and consequently the announcements need to be made on every flight.

I imagine that the idea of having seats upright at take-off and landing is as much to enable people in the row behind to get out easily if they need to (and to enable flight attendants or others to get in easily if someone is injured) as anything else.

As for the question of coffee on board, which someone raised: if you think the coffee's bad on most flights, have you tried the tea?