or ARE they?
No one is asking them to fight. I'm expecting them to exercise the authority those 4 bars give them (and the reason they get the top dollar on the aircraft) and actually attend to a problem in their aircraft that is escalating rapidly out of hand. Perhaps the captain (who for some reason is still held in some esteem by the passengers) actually coming and explaining to the guy
why he needed to go back to his seat (at least for the take off) would have diffused this and perhaps carried more weight than a CC just stonewalling. It certainly wouldn't have hurt
PR wise for the other passengers, who must have been left wondering just what the f*ck was going on. I dare say the aircraft would have probably left the gate sooner as well.