Anger Over Bipartisan SOTU Seating?

I received a lot of angry calls today at work about the bipartisan seating at the State of the Union address. Most of the people argued that Republicans won the election and should be able to show their disapproval of President Obama and his policies by booing him during the speech. In my mind, I imagine they thought this would make Obama seem more powerful by partially silencing his opposition. Do you think the bipartisan seating plan made Obama seem more powerful? Or do you think that these complaints were unjustified?