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Some vehicles have a specific method of disabling the passenger seat air bag. Outside of the desire to place a baby seat there, some passengers may have a medical condition such that their risk of death is higher if the airbag deploys than if it doesn't.

In most jurisdictions, it is still illegal to put a baby or very small child in the passenger seat. I can't speak for anyone else, but in my own case, I think the risk of forgetting to turn it off when a child is riding in the front seat is going to be much higher than the risk of forgetting my child in the rear seat.

That's really the calculus: How is it that we think we could forget that our child is in the back seat, but remember to disengage the air bag every time we put their seat in the front?

I assume it's because modern cars have weight sensors for the airbags, but they don't always work.

There is a weight sensor built into the front passenger seat.