Why people always seat in front of me when I’m holding the handle on top of the seat infront of me?

There’s a lot of empty seats, I get motion sickness easily so often time I need to hold the handle infront of me (the one on top of every seat) . And people would just choose to sit on that seat.

Is it a passive aggressive way to tell me not to do that? (But it that’s the case why bother having an handle there?)