Airborne,
'Numpties' not quite so. The race is now not for seats but for baggage storage space, being late on while you might have your pre assigned seat, you are not guaranteed that your bag will get a place in the over head locker. Hence it may go into the hold. This I suspect why people queue up so early ?
I've not flown FR in a number of years, but looking forward to giving it another go in the near future.