Umm actually I was being sarcastic about Recaro not being in the seat business. I know they have been there for a long time making hard racing car seats (amongst others). But I still wish they hadn't gone into the airline seat business.
What surprised me was not that I was uncomfortable (which could just be my own frame and body, and thus my own problem), but that many other people of very different frames and dimensions to me have said the same thing about the uncomfortable SAA seats. And the SAA Recaros stand out amongst the many airlines I travel on for the uncomfortableness of the seats.
IMHO if the seat purchase was uninfluenced by other considerations (heh heh) then it must come back to the management trap of believing the 'brand-name' and not doing something constructive like actually testing the seats before they get ordered.