As one who profoundly despises the cramped seat pitch of CO I think you did the right thing. Luckily a solution was found.
As a rule, whenever I fly CO Y I do not recline my seat because I know I will be intruding in the absurdly limited space the person behind me has.
The bigger picture, though, is that this yet another example of the horrifying conditions in which CO excepts 90% of its customers to fly.
Imagine if you had been on your way from EWR to HKG and no accommodation had been possible? Would have been willing/able to endure excruciating back pain for over 16 hours?
As I have written many times before, I once was so uncomfortable and cramped on a CO transcon that I went straight from the airport to a chiropractor in El Segundo.