In my opinion any system which only works reliably 99% of
the time is definitely broken. That's what we used to call 'normalisation of deviation'.
I once traveled with a certain
airline and didn't like the look of it's baggage tags, didn't look
strong enough or sticky enough. When challenged the check-in
staff said 'they are standard world wide'. Sure enough they came
off in transit and my baggage was only rescued due to the efforts
of the next carrier. I'm sure that someone saved his airline some
costs by purchasing cheaper tags. With other airlines you need
a knife or scissors to get the tags off. Repeat this sort of cost saving
in other areas and of course things will get lost or damaged. Not
to mention that many airports have surveillance in baggage areas
to try to stop their staff thieving.
And, yes, the overhead lockers are normally loaded far above their rather low limit.
Seems to be treated as a capacity not a load limit,
but that has been so for at least the time I have been a regular traveler, call it 40 years.