Yes. Many, if not most, frequent flyers are so familiar with everything that they don't even need to pay any attention to the safety briefing, or even read the safety card.
At one point I flew 125,000 in a year, but fortunately I'm no longer a frequent traveler.
Do I pay close attention to the safety briefing? Frankly, no. I've heard it all before dozens of times. I know how to put on and take off my seat belt. I know how to put on the oxygen mask. By the time of the safety briefing, I've already read the safety card several times. I've located the closest exits to the front and rear. I've counted the number of seats to the closest exit and committed it to memory. I've memorized the procedure to open the closest exit. I've looked down at the floor to try to find the emergency lighting. Yes, I still do this on each flight.
Would a flight crew member be able to better operate an emergency exit than I? Possibly. But just how much better? From reading the safety cards, I have to say that opening emergency exits does not appear to be rocket science. Perhaps those of you with "extensive safety training" can convince me otherwise.
I can understand why dead-heading crew member would want to be in an exit row. I want to be in that very same row for the very same reason.