As someone who is fairly but not very tall and who admittedly travels enough to get Economy Plus anyway most of the time, it's hard for me to be too sympathetic beyond a "Yeah, it sucks" kind of way. Airlines do force people who are too wide to upgrade in some way (like buy an extra seat)--though I've had bad experiences when they haven't.

But people want cheaper tickets and companies have their rules. I'm not sure there are good solutions other than negotiate something with your company or shell out the extra cash.