There is a design where the middle seat is further back than the aisle and window seats. It would help in a different way...it's easier to get in and out of the seats. There's even an option to slide the aisle seat in during boarding, though I'm somewhat skeptical about that.
I am picturing a seat where the seat itself is stationary but the back slides forward or back on a track. Tray tables could be the style that stow in the seat and flip up and over.
If you look at the side view of seated people, the incline of the upper body and the nesting of feet under legs of next row pax works against you for club seating (seating which faces each other) and works for you for all forward seating.
If you look at the sibling comment’s video, you can see that the pelvis of humans seated back-to-back is farther apart than what you can achieve in today’s all forward-facing seating.
People are willing to some extent to nest feet with people they know but probably don’t want to sit 90° upright for over an hour.
There is a design where the middle seat is further back than the aisle and window seats. It would help in a different way...it's easier to get in and out of the seats. There's even an option to slide the aisle seat in during boarding, though I'm somewhat skeptical about that.
It does make the middle seat more desirable than it currently is, by making it wider and solving the armrest problem. https://www.fastcompany.com/3067612/this-redesigned-airplane...