Originally Posted by etch5895
A gentleman I was sitting next to a few weeks ago commented on that specific thing, but also brought up the point that he tended to see the exit row seats filled with obese people who sit there presumably for the extra room.
Now, without turning this into a thread on obesity (lord knows there are plenty on that subject), he brought up a good point about them possibly having trouble opening the door and slowing down the exiting procedure.
In my experience the exit rows are favored by very tall (or just plain BIG) people who need the legroom; morbidly obese folks may actively avoid exit rows because their problem is usually with seat width, not seat pitch. The tray tables are often in the armrests, making an uncomfortably narrow seat even narrower.
In any case the situation is an improvement over the days before the exit-row-lecture rules, when airlines routinely seated the handicapped in exit rows.