I cannot undertstand general cabin bagage allowances.
You are not the only one....To me this is entirely the airline industries fault - and in the UK its not helped by stupid security rules either. On the one hand you have really silly UK security rules, insisting that as much as possible is checked in, and on the other hand you have the Lo-Co's saying they dont want you to check in luggage as it slows their turn-arounds down. The industry sends mixed messages about what they want.
I travel for work, and I have a laptop/breifcase that has to go where I do, period. If I am going somewhere for longer than a 1-3 day course, ie to work -then I check-in luggage, and stuff a shirt & spare smalls in my laptop/briefcase just in case. The problems come if you are one day or two somewhere and then in others overnight etc. Checking stuff in is a pain in the arse, and if anything goes wrong you are screwed, so I need my small rollie case as hand luggage too....If the airlines actually could get their luggage systems to work then I would be happier checking in stuff. And another thing, my Laptop briefcase is 6/7 years old now and still going strong, despite constant use. On the other hand, I dont think I have had hold bags last longer than 2 years, and their only "use", by definition is for the travelling !! The system seems to literally eat bags.
Just this last trip I was forced to check-in a new legal rollie bag and it arrived well and truly crunched/twisted, another 100 Euros down the drain, but as it was new and the damage was so great, and it happened on the return leg I had time to go through the claims process, and now have a replacement from the airline. Most of the time I either dont notice until its too late, or I dont have time to do anything and just eat the cost myself.
To me, you should be allowed a laptop bag/briefcase/ladies handbag equivilent, plus one other bag. If duty free was set up to collect at the other end it would be safer and also free up space too.
Just my 2c, SD..