This is why I love Flyertalk. This thread. We are the only people in the world having this discussion right now.

When I stretch out my feet, they would touch the bar. Usually I just leave my precious toes an inch or two behind the bar...not because of strong opinions on bar-entitlement, but rather to prevent accidentally getting kicked or stepped on. Its not hard to do this and still be reasonably comfortable. (Well, as economy class "comfort" goes, anyway.)

The lady could have been more pleasant about it, but from his perspective she was thinking "why is this dude sticking his feet into my space?"

When I opened the thread, I thought it was going to be about bulkhead legroom. With the obvious exception of a flight attendant jumpseat in the space, or FAs doing their duties and temporarily using the space, I do believe it belongs to the bulkhead passengers. I once had a flight where a woman literally came into my legroom space to do yoga. Thankfully, the FA immediately scurried her off.