Reserved seats for Tohoku Festivals

Is it better to buy the reserved seats for Aomori's Nebuta and Akita's Kanto Festivals?

A past response about Aomori suggested that in Aomori, annoying people try to "reserve" unpaid areas from the early morning with tape so that normal people cannot enjoy it. Is this true? Is it basically impossible to enjoy and get close and good pictures without seat reservations? How likely is it for someone without tickets to get close enough to see and enjoy the festival?

I didn't find anything about Akita, so I have the same questions for there. Do people reserve unpaid spots early so that no one else can enjoy it or do people move around enough that you can enjoy it without buying a reserved seats?

I went to both festivals last summer.
If you want free and good viewing spot, you must arrive early and wait, wait and wait.
But Japanese have unwritten rule on saving seats/spot: if you arrive early you can save a spot by placing a personal item on that spot. In cases like outdoor festival, you can put a camping chair or even a tarp with something on it (like a bottle of water) and that spot becomes yours. One time I sat on a bench that had a candy on it. I thought some kid forgot his candy there. It turns out that bench was being saved!!! I just moved to the next bench.

I do recommend bringing a small collapsible camping chair, unless you are comfortable sitting on a tarp on the ground.

So in Akita you think it will also be impossible to enjoy without either buying a reserved seats or putting something down to "reserve" the open space by the road?

Oh it's making my "fun festival" trip start to sound like a miserable nightmare. I was hoping people would move around more.

I went in 2018 to both.

As for Kanto matsuri I arrived around 3 PM and saw that many people put personal item so I did the same, I brought a small picnic sheet, bought two big water bottles in convinience store and used brown tape and wrote a name on it. Many people did that.

As for Nebuta I am not sure because I was dancing, I rented a haneto yukata and joined the parade. All I can say is that it was very crowded even though in the end it was raining

Akita's Kanto Festival is different compared to Nebuta.
Nebuta is like a parade of floats - you can stay in one spot and all floats will parade through.

Kanto Festival has no moving floats.
Instead, the participating teams are assigned fixed location to perform their skills.
So, if you want to concentrate on your favorite team, you can buy a reserved seat (like bleacher seats, 3 or 4 levels I don't remember exactly) in front of your team. You should be able to see a neighboring team, depending on which row bleacher you sit.
But if you want to see many teams, then you don't want a reserved seat - you need to move. But more than half of the sidewalk is filled with stationary spectators, so you have to use the other half of the sidewalk to move around, which does not offer the best view.