I do feel that some basic standards of seat width and pitch might be in order. But what SHOULD it be? IMO people like low cost tickets more than anything else. If they didn't the airlines would be putting MORE first class seats in their planes instead of taking them out.
Now, I do tend to agree with some of the European passenger rights when it comes to flight schedule changes and cancellations.
IMO holding the carrier fiscally liable for their schedule and fiscally liable for inconveniencing their customer gives them a motive set schedules they can actually ACHIEVE rather than gambling on perfection. Yes, it will increase ticket prices, but motivating carriers to invest in reliability and resilliencey is a good thing.