Just wanted to post my first experiences.
Check in was like the screenshot above, riddled with strange behavior. After boarding the purser came through the cabin, manifest in hand, to welcome elites and offer an upgrade to the exit row, since aparently all exit seats were still free. All elites exept me of course, somehow he managed to skip either me personally, or all Gold elites.
So I was stuck in a row of three. Thankfully the guy in the middle seat was traveling with friends in row 22 and he moved after a FA OK'ed the request.
Basically the initial impressions were bad. All EC seats were taken, up till row 10 every seat was occupied. Only since some elites moved to the exit row some space was created, but still, this situation should never have existed. I guess I expected the front EC cabin to now be mostly empty.