You can blame that Be1900 crash down in Charlotte for the weight restrictions, which afterwards they changed all the passenger weights and changed the way we have to load bags.

In the Dash, before the crash, if we were 200 lbs overweight, we would just move 10 carry-ons from the cargo to the cabin and the weight "magically" went away. We cant do that anymore (at least arn't supposed to)

We used to be able to fill the Dash full all the time, now it is weight restricted to 35 (out of 37) for EVERY flight no matter how short. Of course the DAsh8-300 have no problems taking 50 pax/83 bags/ and plenty of fuel for a alternate (and it will still land on a 3000 ft runway.