Correct me if I have picked all of this up wrong but....
In my brief experience of CO they have the policy of carry on bagagge weighing no more than 20KG providing it can fit in the guage at check in... Also from what I remember they spent massive amoutns of money re enforcing the overhead lockers to provide for this and met feirce sh*t off United and the Denver Aiport Authorities and Delta and the San Diego Authorites...
Now maybe you were on a VS/CO flt from LHR and then we could go off into the argument that if you buy a CO ticket you should still recieve the CO treatment blah blah blah but I just thought I would raise that point..
Also in relation to CO food... Once again a long time ago I used to prepare the food for CO in Gate Gourment in DUB and they always had a VERY high standard... Business first was supreme and Economy was quite good and effective and from what I saw a few weeks back this service has not really changed in sight of 911... ie: the food seems to be it's good quality self...
Then again the way I think about it is you are going on a trip... Do you honestly take into consideration the food when booking a trip and would that really put you off going with an airline? I like good food but I would rather get there in one peice, comftably and on time...
Anyway..
Just thought I would run with that
This might help