Communion "Procession"

In a discussion essentially of something else, Fr Edward McNamara, who answers liturgical questions from readers on Zenit, says that the situation wherein people not in a state to take communion feel their abstention will be too embarrassingly noticeable and so receive, "is more often that not provoked by the bad habit in many parishes of insisting on an orderly pew-by-pew communion procession when a bit of confusion would be enough to help such people pass unnoticed."

Is that a bad habit?

I've never liked it, but didn't give any thought to whether my distaste had any rational basis.

I remember the weekend the pastor in my home parish, obviously peeved about it, announced that our bishop, after a visit the week earlier had dressed him down for our disorderly communion time, and henceforth, we could only come up, row by row, as the ushers indicated.
And I could be remembering incorrectly, but I think we did it beginning from the back, a relatively uncommon method which I recently learned is one more reason Cdl Mahony is a frequent target of the less leftish American Catholics' ire.

I don't get it.
Not the opposition to any wrangling of communicants, that I am glad to go on record as opposing.
But I think once you accept the propriety of any such system ("now it's your turn,") getting your noise out of joint over whether it begins in back or front is just knee-jerk opposition to anything proposed by someone with whom you have disagreed in the past.