These situations often anger me. The staff look for easy targets and passengers they think might more easily agree to relinquish their carry-on rather than those with clearly oversized luggage that does not conform to size limits.

We’ve been discussing this since the unbundling of checked luggage from fares many years ago. If passengers were not asked for exorbitant fees to check bags, airlines ensure checked luggage delivery is timely and enforce published size limits, this would all be far simpler.