Agree completely. But we were getting no instructions other than, "please return to your seats we are not at the gate" which was a little odd. And, the way we hit, we had no way of knowing whether or not the pilots were conscious. We were waiting for guidance and didn't get any for a few minutes. Once the smell of smoke started working the way through the plane, it only heightened concerns. To this day, I still don't know whether either of the pilots issued a command or statement. There certainly was no, "this is the pilot, ...."
The gentleman on the opposite side of the plane to me opened his exit door and was subsequently told to shut it, (as they were spraying down the plane.) The front left exit door popped open upon landing on its own.
Bottom line, at some point you have to start thinking about options--and one of mine was to open my exit row and.....exit. But that would have only happened if things had gotten significantly worse and we still weren't getting guidance.