People who can't deal with the reality of the T should maybe stay off the subway

He doesn't have a cane or a service dog, but he's as blind as any blind passenger would be.

That's a problem because he doesn't know if he's in the way. He doesn't know if anyone is near him. Half of your balance comes from visual perception of your surroundings. In fact, there are a lot of fun mental tricks you can play where you hide someone's body parts like an arm, then fool them with a mirror into thinking their arm is about to get smashed even though they can feel that it isn't. The same problem exists with walking around with VM on when in a confined public situation like the T. If the T lurches to the left or right, his instinct is going to be to reach out for support and his vision isn't going to give him any feedback on whether that works or not and he's going to flail.

Just standing there watching your phone screen when all situations are calm? No, it's not a big deal. But he's wholly unprepared to deal with anything else to come his way like a rough ride, extra passengers, a thief, or a large number of other situations that could suddenly present themselves.

Absent a medical condition, we all smell -- but not all of us stink.