I had something like this happen on an intra-Turkey flight a few years back (forgot the name of the airline). In this case I move to a vacant exit row, only to be told to go back. Later found out that they charged extra for those (this was before it was widespread, so I wasn't aware of the practice).

I can see it with an exit row, but the situation that the OP describes is definitely over the top, IMO.

Cheers.