By your username, it seems you are a lawyer and would know better than I would, but to me, it does seem like there is a big difference between holding someone in a confined space on a plane upon landing vs. in an airport terminal where you really are not confined at all (free to leave the terminal if you wish). It seems like a night and day difference to me, and it especially did at the time this occured - being very tall and in a confined space for several hours.

And in the air, in who knows what jurisdiction, I'll gladly abide by almost any direction given to me by the flight crew, including honoring the fare class curtain (which I would do in any case).

I'm all for extra benefits for higher fare tickets, and expect that myself, but it seems that the airlines should focus on other areas than this. At the very least, it seems that they should only block the Y class passengers for the very first folks ready to quickly get out of first/business. After that, even first/business passengers are likely going to be held up by fellow passengers fetching their bags from the overhead.