I saw it on a couple flights, not most. It's a train wreck. The first people take the first bins, but sit in the back. Then people getting on who sit in the front have to walk back, find a bin, then walk back forward against the traffic. It's about as much of a clusterf as you'd imagine.
I don't know why FA's don't watch and ban the practice...
I have done 50s of flights and encountered it about quite often (at least 50% of the flights I have been on, likely close to 100%). Esp in the second half of boarding, people just want to be safe not sorry.
Interesting. I wouldn't want my bag out of reach and out of sight (it has my laptop in it) and as a rule people seem to use the bin closest to them. On the plus side, since COVID I haven't had to fly at all and that saves a ton of time and irritation. (Most of my flights in recent years have been within the EU, before that a very large number between the US and Europe and Canada and Europe, rarely within the US domestically).