Is it really too much to check the bags in and wait at the baggage carousel at the other end to retrieve them? Airlines need to can the exorbitant baggage fees to encourage people to check bags into the hold rather than try and take their entire 2 weeks vacation worth of stuff with them in the cabin.
It is particularly annoying that on almost every flight I am on, I have to remove my very small and light backpack (usually just containing a book and my phone, headphones etc.) from the overhead bins and am forced to stow it under my feet in front of me (I am quite tall, and prefer nothing on the floor in front of me to prevent me stretching my legs in the limited room available) in order to make room for hundreds of others who can't bear to wait a few more minutes at the destination airport. I try to travel light and take up as little room as possible on the plane, and I get penalised because too many people try to do the opposite. It is a lose-lose endgame.
Increase the incentives to check bags in the hold, restrict carry on even further - that should make it a much more pleasant cabin experience, even in a non emergency.