Yeah, I have seen it even with a jet bridge. I have never seen elites being called to board first. And there seems to be no order to it whatsoever. One person is told their bag is too big while others with much larger bags are allowed to carry on. I have flown with groups of between 7-15 people and one person might get singled out for apparently no reason.

I agree that the boarding by bus gets really chaotic. The worst in in the summer in LCA - it is so hot and everyone rushes to get on the bus, even thougn the last person on the bus will be the first to get off.