The concept of a “makom kavuah” or having “chazakah” over a particular seat in shul is an anachronism except perhaps for seats reserved for the rav, gabboim, elderly, disabled or small shtieblach where the seating is sort of random and movable chairs are paired with a shtender where one stores his tallis/teffiin/seforim. Otherwise, in a moderately or larger sized shul with fixed seating, it should be “open seating” period, without regard to whether certain baal habtim consider themselves to be sufficiently important to warrant having seats permanently dedicated to them regardless of whether they are in shul when davening starts. There is no more or less important chair from the perspective of the Ebeshter who could care less where you are seated and is more concerned with your kavanah, even if you are hanging from a chandelier or mistakenly seated in the varbeshe section.
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