Tezzer
I sit in row 1 quite a lot and my local airline are often faced with people who inadvertently leave bags on the floor.
The CC always politely ask "excuse me sir/madam, your bag needs to go in the overhead locker for take off and landing; may I place it there for you or would you prefer to do it yourself?"
It sounds to me a if my airline value premium customers more than the one you travelled on. Also, my airline would appear to train it's CC in defusing potential conflicts more effectively.
On the subject of the mobile phone still in use as the crew took their seats, this sounds like a clear breach of safety to me and frankly sounds too fantastic to believe. I cannot believe that a serious carrier would allow this to happen.
Given the flight details, I am assuming that the carrier is one who has grown a lot in recent years and whose service levels have suffered in inverse proportion.