GH: You wrote “a yid walking into a new shul typically doesn’t first search for a seating chart hidden behind the door or wait for the gabbai sheini or shlishi”.
In my shule the seating chart is not hidden. It is just to the right of the entrance door, at eye level, just above the poster with the weekly schedule and just below the sign that reads “Please do not sit in someone’s seat, they have been purchased for the year. Please see the gabboyim for assistance”. There is another seating chart with the same sign pasted on the wall once inside the shule.