Boarding first and business class, and high-tier/lounge-access passengers last is the common practice on most airlines I fly (European and Asian). Pax don't want to be on board the aircraft for longer than they have to when they can be sitting more comfortably in the lounge while the hordes are being put into the back. If the distance from lounge to gate is not too great, the common technique is that the gate calls the lounge when ordinary boarding is largely complete and the lounge then announces the flight.
I agree, though, that they ought to do something about people who deliberately and selfishly put their bags in overhead bins a long way away from where they are seated and deny the pax in that area the use of those bins. "My seat, my bin" should be SOP.