1/2 place flex seating configuration

Trading off tandem vs side by side seating I came upon an idea I
wanted to run by the group. The mission my aircraft needs to perform
is mostly a single place weekend out and back kind of mission, with an
occasional 2 person XC trip. I'd been homing on the tandem seat
config because I like the fighter plane style symetric seating. But
my spouse doesn't like the idea of having to look at the back of my
head for 4 hours on trips and prefers the side by side configuration.
But I don't want to sit scrunched on one side of the aircraft year
round with the canopy next the side of my head because twice a year
she wants to have a seat beside me. And of course you have the
left/right unbalance. But then after a ride in a Zenith I had an
idea:

Zenith planes use single stick between the 2 passengers, either person
can use to fly. If the seat was bench style, I could sit in the
middle when flying solo, and push the 2 outside rudder pedals of the 2
pairs (or move cables to the 2 middle ones). You don't really need a
bucket seat in an airplane as you do in a car because most forces are
normal to the plane defined by the wings and thrust vector. It would
just be a nice roomy single seater at that point. Anyone seen
anything like this before?