Here we go again. The cofferoom has so much deja vu.
kvodhatorah I discovered a long time ago that many people are either
1. ignorant of Halacha (most people) or
2. know Halacha but cant be bothered with doing every single Halacha ( hey theres sooooo many I do most things so what if I dont do EVERYTHING Im still better than shmerel…I must be alright) especially the ones that are difficult or very inconvenient like this one.
3. they see a lot of people do something wrong so assume its mutar and that theres some heter(because SOOO many people are doing it) and jump on the bandwagon
For the record I asked a Rav and was told this Halacha is still existent and there is no heter for what goes on wth people stepping back into others 4 amos or walking in front of those davening shemoneh esrei or taking siddurim or other things off the table in front of one davening shemoneh esrei.