I'm guessing the 900 and 175 are going to get treated as the avro was, a mainline aircraft. Therefore normal sized roller bags will be allowed onboard and the policies for the -200 are just specific to that fleet.
AZJ
Wrong assumption. On every CRJ-900 I've been on (3X NW, 10+X DL) they have gate-checked carryons. Our 22" rollaboards (Samsonites) would never fit in the overheads. MDW just seems to be a bit lax regarding carryon limitations.
Also note that in the F sections, the "normal" (for CRJ) sized bins are only on one side. On a mainline aircraft, you have the usual bin space for 2/3 the pax in F (as compared to Y). On the CRJ in F, you have 1/2 the bins for 3/4 the # of pax, so there isn't as much to go around. This really isn't a problem when the larger items are gate-checked.
There are some really diminutive overheads on the left over the 1-seat side that almost nobody ever uses.
Appearances are indeed deceptive... as are opinions. I value your opinion Mike, but I won't expect the seats on the 90s to be the worst in the system. Lumbar support and other comforts are a matter of opinion, but I'll keep the fact that you're vehemently against the new comforts of the 900 in mind.
So far the feedback in FT has been unanimously negative -- from several people besides myself.