Correct. I am American, and I have learned from this conversation that what's normal for us in terms of carry-on is much different than what's normal for passengers based out of other regions.

However, I fly globally, and rarely fly US3 on international routes, so my exposure to European and Asian airlines is significant. This is the first time I've flown Middle East/Africa.

I have also learned from this conversation that the key point is enforcement, not the rules themselves, but I still assert EK is an outlier both in the rules and the enforcement of those rules.

What makes me most upset about this is the selective enforcement. As stated in my original post, there's no question in my mind that almost half of all passengers I observed in the transit area at DXB had more luggage than would have been allowed for any passenger starting at DXB or re-entering DXB after a long layover city visit. Many of these clearly had the "international standard" of "one carry on and one personal item" which made it easy to assess. Many more had carry on bags that were so large (again, international standard) that there's no conceivable way they could weigh in at < 7 KG unless they were either empty or filled with styrofoam.