Except that most wide screen displays these days can be rotated 90 degrees into a vertical orientation. Problem solved.
Edit: Granted, that doesn't work for laptops, except for tablets.
He dismisses the ability to put two open documents side by side on the screen as not very useful but if you write code on your computer this is the most important thing in the world.
Actually, width doesn't make sense for movies either. Your field of vision is not letterbox shaped. Look at IMAX if you want an effective large screen format. What's more common in movies, a close up, or a shot of a landscape ? I've got my left monitor rotated to portrait, which works pretty well, but it would be better if it was more 'square'.