Geez what is with the prejudice against bench seats

I had a bench seat in my '69 340 Swinger back in the very early '70s and it was great. Newly married and my bride sat next to me with her arm around me as we cruised Whittier Blvd.
I even kept it after changing the 727 to a reverse-pattern manual shift. It was funny when we got our first dog because he would lay on the seat next to me and the shifter handle hit him in the nose everytime I'd shift from 2nd to 3rd.
Back then a bench was also lighter weight than two buckets.