Is it recommended that one pays for early boarding on this aircraft type if there's additional carry-on?
On our return leg from TPE (via SFO and ORD), we had B-fare tickets and E+ seats. For carry-ons, we had a duffel bag under max regulation size, my back pack, and my wife's messenger bag. Two of the bags can't be gate-checked (containing a laptop and a tablet, respectively), and the duffel bag contained all of the goodies we bought on our trip (desserts from Taiwan and Japan in cardboard gifting boxes). Finding space for these bags weren't an issue on EVA 787 with 9 seats abreast and 31" pitch, but on the 757-300 with 34-38" pitch, we had no overhead storage left by the time we boarded (somewhere in the middle of Group 3).
One flight attendant finally took pity on us and found space for the duffel in first class overhead bin and secured the backpack behind row 6. What's even more interesting is that we had no issue finding space for these items on our final leg of the trip from ORD, on a CRJ-200, despite having seats full all-around us.
It was quite the contrast in traveling experience, as we got upgraded to lie-flat seats on TPE to SFO and got to enjoy the amenities of the Polaris Lounge at SFO.
Oh, and the aircraft was incredibly loud, which is something I didn't notice on either the CRJ-200 nor the widebody aircrafts.