I'm 5'3" and my hand luggage is always a backpack I can put under the seat in front of me. Moving a bag out of a locker at or above head height is not physically the easiest thing to do, especially if it's slid to the back. On some long haul flights I'm not able to reach inside the lockers at all without standing on tiptoes! And I prefer a window seat, so don't want to keep asking other people to get up so I can fetch my stuff. So no, definitely wouldn't choose an exit row.