I personally find the problem is not the seat pitch as such, but the amount of 'intrusion' into my personal space when the seat in front is reclined. I recently flew a 12 hour sector on a European flag carrier (B744 Combi), and I couldn't actually get out of my seat when the occupant in front was reclined. The idea of the 'TGV' seat, borrowed from the French train where the seat base moves rather the the back, meaning that when you recline you use your own space to do it seems welcome, but I imagine it would require extra pitch to accomodate the moving squab.
In short, the golden age of flying is gone, nobody wants to pay the costs anymore, pressure on wages, space etc so less revenue per passenger must mean that more passengers needed per flight to make up the revenue.
