Total BS.

I have about 400 hours in the 145 and the same in the 170. Lots of pax and bags bumped on the 145. I can think of only one flight where we couldn't take everybody and all their crap on the 170 and that required a ton of extra fuel due to two alts being needed and a temp in DEN of about 33 on departure.

In most cases, even with 70/76 pax the aft hold is completely empty.