I guess you've never taken one of the Finnair charters in a 28" seat pitch 757 from Helsinki in Finland to Natal in Brazil or Phuket in Thailand, about 12 hours elapsed time with an intermediate fuel stop.
Actually I would expect someone on these forums to be able to read the schedule for the allocated type, where we find that CO2403, the once-daily nonstop service to Tulsa, is regularly scheduled for an ERJ. If it's a problem for you, change planes somewhere along the way. Of course the nonstop is found to be more direct and convenient. It's nice to spend a whole workng day in New York City and still get to a place as far off the mainstream track as a smaller city in Oklahoma. Tulsa is not a large city (sorry Tulsonians) and thus the seats prvided doubtless match the demand. A Continental 737 would have so many wasted seats it would either be a huge loss or the service would be quickly withdrawn, neither of which are attractive.
Another thing users of this forum normally understand is that the degree of crampedness or not is nothing particularly connected with the airframe type. It is up to the airline to put in as many as they wish to up to the designated maximum. If you want to comment on Continental's selected seat pitch, fair enough, but it's nothing to stick on Embraer, or RJs in general.