So here is the very serious question for all you fellow frequent travellers.Why? 

In all fairness it is not as if the plane is going to stop any faster or that you the passenger are going to be able to alight the plane any faster as a result of this procedure.In fact if you stop & think about it logically we are probably slowing the process up.Never mind from a health & safety point of view,it is adding stress to the journey because you feel you are obliged to join this melee & jockey into position in case you lose your place.

Particularly if you are sitting on an aisle seat as i tend to do for legroom you automatically sense the tension rising in the passengers sitting next to you worried that you are not going to move. So you end up conforming...