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I’ve been on Southwest flights so sparsely full (maybe 40 people on a plane with capacity for 120) where the flight attendants have to repeatedly tell people to “spread out for weight and balance.” That’s about as scientific as their calculation got.

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Which is drastically different from my experience from flying a different carrier with a very empty plane. The original seat assignments had all of the passengers bunched together and the flight attendants denied anyone's request to move to empty rows until the plane reached altitude. They finally explained that the plane's load master stated that's where the weight needed to be during take-off/landing. Once they explained that, everyone complied without any further complaints.

I wonder if everyone moved back to their assigned seats before landing. Did they?

Yes, when they made the announcement about making the descent on approach, they asked everyone to move back to the seats they were in on take off while return your tray and seat to their upright position

CG CP - Center of Gravity, Center of Pressure.

I just took a nearly empty southwest flight last week. The flight attendant asked me to move further back in the plane, and appeared to have an iPad or notepad she was using to track passenger count per zone. First time I’ve seen this system.

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