I have evolved from someone who didn't think much of the bar except for resting my legs to thinking of it as an obvious life-saving precaution. Dr. Bourne shared several examples from Mammoth in which the bar could have saved lives, including the death of her former ski coach, who fell from a chairlift to his death, most likely from a medical event which may have been treatable.
When you're lining up for the ski lift on a busy day, there's one rule you need to follow: make groups that fill the chair. Sometimes the ski resort will have lifties directing groups, while other times it's up to the skiers and snowboarders to do the math and make groups. The biggest chairlifts you'll see usually carry up to 8 people on one chair, so it shouldn't be that hard to count that many people, yet some struggle with the math.