I have a problem with people in the exit rows who dangle anything from the back of the row in front.

The bottom line is most FAs don't want to get into unpleasant situations with the passengers and you will always have these ignorant/smart aleck passengers who don't know why the rules are there and love breaking them. So, until we have an incident where these things cause great harm, nothing is going to change. Even after that, it will change for a few days then back to "normal".