Originally Posted by
travellingref
LH gates at FRA definitely work this way (apart from the Group 9 part), so it's perfectly possible to do. Having been through those gates a couple of times recently, it's definitely enforced (5 groups, allowed in order) and the gates make a loud and obvious "rejection" noise if someone tries to go early. Last time I also experienced pre-filtering by the gate staff.
I've only seen it happen boarding KLM at VIE personally, but even then there's nothing like it done at AMS so it's very location/airline specific.