it's the smaller front seat occupants that come off worst in a crash because they are so near to the bulkhead and steering column.
They have to be, or they can't reach the pedals and steering wheel.
That's interesting, as I'm the same height and had a Rover 3500 which was the same hell as the Rover 2000 and fitted just fine.
My only experience of one was a brief ride in a mates with my knees jammed against the glovebox. I thought the seat was right back, but perhaps not. (Mk4 & Mk5 Cortinas use the same body shell, the problem with the Mk5 was that deeper seats and thicker headlining reduced the headroom.)
Cabins may be more snug but that also comes from increasing safety.
If anything, they are looking out for the minorities
Making cabins smaller isn't really increasing safety, it's just excluding taller people.
Seat belts will pretension in a collision, they won't wait for pma body to move forward before locking.
Seat belts don't stop your legs from flailing.
As far as room inside is concerned - I am confused by people buying an SUV type car because it has more room
when I have looked at some of them the actual space inside is about the same
One of the best thing I have seen was a car where the rear seat had 3 positions so you could have it right back for lots of leg room - middle for normal use and right forward for less leg room but more boot spaces
When I was on the verge of giving up driving because I couldn't find one with enough headroom, a salesman suggested an SUV, but the one I tried had no more room than the saloons.
On later versions of my Accord you could fold half the rear seat back down, and make room for large luggage items to protrude from the boot into the cabin.