Reversing the head restraint would scare the crap out of me. I used to work in automotive seating and reversing the head rest (short for restraint, not meant for resting the head) can adversly effect crash test ratings, particularly rear impact type collisions but could also from front in a rebound situation. As such, I would advise not to reverse the head restraint.
FWIW, the government is starting to mandate, or at least is about to, that all head restraints be something like 25 mm (about an inch) away IIRC in design position. This will make almost all h/rests too close when sitting in a more vertical seat back position. I imagine this is why your wife doesn't like the h/rest position. This drove me nuts when I test drove an Edge, but I didn't notice too much with the Mazda. Although it is very close.
You may want to measure the head rest stakes to determine the width appart and look at the height retention method and see if an older style Mazda would work in its place. HTH.
