Ryanair have really ramped up charging people for bags that "don't fit"

No. That's just two measurements of the thickness i.e. the breadth.

Took 4 Ryanair flights to get to Rome & back for the Rugby last weekend, and definitely noticed all the Ryanair staff being a lot more picky on this.. we departed from Dublin, Prague, Rome FCO & Vienna, but by far Prague was the worst where they were checking pretty much all bag types (large & small)…

2nd flight which was Prague to Rome, had a class of Italian school kids on a trip going home, and pretty much every one of them got pulled and the vast majority of their bags were deemed 'oversize', and most of them by virtue of the wheels protruding by mere millimetres!!! a few of the lads even resorted to trying to smash the wheels off their bags!

We (3 of us with 3 'small' cabin (laptop) bags, but one of which was a bigger IRFU Rugby backpack that was definitely not fitting in the sizer), sat back watching this all unfold until they made the last call where we slinked into the queue behind a guy with a bag that was definitely not fitting either, so he was the sacrificial lamb chosen to occupy matron (the one pulling everyone), while we effortlessly glided through via her colleague who just wanted everyone gone so she could go home..

Everywhere else though they were only interested in the larger overhead bin size bags…

I wouldn't be surprised if this new cabin baggage push isn't in some way incentivised for the staff in order to get their buy in to police it.. Ryanair will be pulling huge additional revenue from it, so why not share a fraction of that as an incentive?

The girl in Prague was on. a. mission.

sometimes there isn’t any other choice. You have to fly with them… They operate to a number of destinations from Ireland that none of their competitors do from here…

Also, not every trip is leisure / optional. Going somewhere short notice for work / business, a funeral or other personal matter… financially it might be necessary.. sopeople are entitled to be critical.. of Ryanair, a local supermarket, a car they just bought, whatever

As regards baggage.. Even flying away for a night for the football say….I’m bringing..a full change of clothing, rain jacket toiletry bag..you’d be doing well with the current baggage allowance..

A night away for a football match definitely doesn't require a case, spare pair of socks, jocks and a new t-shirt/shirt for the next day and you'll be grand, toothbrush, toothpaste and some small deo/aftershave take up no space at all.

I saw similar in Dealz on my recent trip to Dublin, as well as a massive load of "underseat" sized bags.

By way of additional anecdotes, on my outbound flight (ex Basel, no size crates in view, as far as I could see), I heard my neighbour mention to her travel companion that she'd been caught for the 60€ supplementary charge on a previous flight, so she was travelling extra-light on this one; and on my return flight (ex Dublin) two lads ahead of me on the stairs out to the plane stopped and called back to someone else in their party - held up at the boarding gate - that they had spare capacity in their bags if she needed it …

Likely they have started enforcing what they used to let slide a lot of the time. For a customer to say they'd used the bag for 10 years without problem does not mean it was previously within the size range. We can probably thank the ones who have full rucksacks as a "small bag" often in addition to the cabin bag

the old saying, fail to prepare, prepare to fail.. lll always have a spare pair of jeans extra tshirts a full change of clothing, rain jacket etc…. You’ll be in the elements getting to and from the ground for a time and at the ground…more prudent then leaving yourself short but hey, everyone is different..

More than likely as has had with others, the wheels or an outside pocket has gone over the dimensions of the sizer which puts it outside of the allowed dimensions.

I got that email in advance of both of my Ryanair flights this year.