Perkin
I have undergone about 15 hours training in a full motion sim, including engine failure at rotation.
I have also experienced a real engine failure on take off in a Navajo, as handling pilot.
Trust me when I tell you that my emotional reaction to these events was quite different. However good the sim, you know that you will survive the detail. In the real world there is no such guarantee. Fortunately my experience ended with a low speed rejected take off, but my heart rate was thumping afterwards, as I nearly ran off the side of the runway due to the asymmetric thrust.
I would also hypothesis that there is a considerable difference in scenario between pilots sitting in the flight deck following their training to try and save the aircraft and sitting in passenger seats, for which they do not train regularly as far as I am aware..
As SXB says this point is largely irrelevant, since the emergency exit row seats are revenue seats.
It has been interesting to read how crews have put forward arguments to have these seats allocated to crew members and I note that Con Pilot said that everyone wants these seats for the same reasons.
If airlines choose to allocate these seats to frequent flyers, then they make a commercial decision that balances risk against benefit.
Airlines make these types of decisions regularly, for example when setting fuel policies and if they are happy to make the decisions and the regulators are happy with the degree of safety offered, then thats good enough for me.