As an old fat pax, I am qualified to speak from the passenger perspective. I cringe a bit when I see any sector I'm on longer than about an hour is being operated by a 737; I know the difference in cabin width is fairly small, and varies depending on the point at which you measure it, but it's enough to make a difference to the guy in the middle seat. As for noise, can't say I've noticed much difference.
Whether pax preference makes much difference in choice of equipment these days is another question, but was it a factor in the end of the 757?