The new policy sound good to me and +1 on enforcing carry on size.
I hope this takes effect at HKG, I took a flight a few years ago (pre status) and was sitting near the back of the plane. They made the call for pre-boarding and all of sudden almost everyone is in line, at some point they started boarding by row and called the back of the plane. However, 90% of the aircraft was lined up.
I asked the gate agent if they were turning back people sitting farther up the cabin, she said no and directed me to the back of the line. I had a quick laugh, sat down and waited for the line to pass.