I will agree that if I'm worried about getting to the gate on time, I would try to avoid being in Row 1. I don't think there's a lot anyone can do about it; as fezzington mentioned the first bin set is usually slightly too narrow to fit a standard rollaboard but there is frequently emergency equipment up there as well. The space bins on the new aircraft are probably a sufficient fix though; with the bags upright there is a ton of space at F density.
I should add though.. I continually worry about overhead space in F. However, in ~80 segments over the last two years, I have never been forced to gate-check a bag (except on green-tag flights). This included a number of flights where I boarded late (sometimes literally the last pax on the plane). In the most stressful cases, I've had to stare down the FA in F until they moved around some bags for me (once they evicted a Y bag from an F bin and gate checked it). I've definitely had to swim upstream a couple rows, but that's no big deal. (I suppose I'm well-trained from snagging the bulkhead on WN..)