It's a weird article of faith for OBers that wheelies are bad, but for a huge chunk of travelers they're exactly the right option because their travels are comprised of home to car to airport to plane to taxi to hotel, all on smooth surfaces.
They're the rule for business travelers and (significantly) air crews, and those choices aren't made out of fashion or inertia.
I mean, if you're trekking in Nepal, yeah, it would suck, but it seems like the OB faithful have a one-size-fits-all disdain for the whole category.
Where he discusses luggage carts as an alternative to a wheeled bag. Which is actually pretty sensible, since removing the permanently attached wheels and extending handle from your bag gets you more carrying capacity and, even combined, lower total weight. So maintain capacity at a modest weight increase, or reduce capacity at a higher weight increase. At least he provides an alternative.
I'm a hardcore backpacker, but one baggers can stray into religious fervor on the subject of wheeled bags. My wife won't backpack, and it has never been an issue, including on fairly off the beaten path trips in Asia. Backpack is marginally better, but the main advantage is just having one bag, regardless of type. I vehemently disagree with this assertion, "few places worth visiting are conducive to rolling a bag behind you."
I haven’t used a wheeled bag in years (including several international trips) and I would recommend it if you’re physically capable. Particularly if you ever fly on regional jets. Whenever I’m boarding a full flight the flight crew starts going around asking people to gate check their wheeled luggage. Not once have they told me I need to gate check mine.
Modern wheeled luggage can be a godsend with heavy checked luggage. But I've never owned a carryon with wheels. They obviously make sense if someone has trouble carrying their carryon around. And I can see them for people who are dressed up. But I do think a lot of people default to them who would be happier with something else.
This misses a common reason to avoid wheels: upcharge on carriers that charge for carry-ons. If you are carrying a tiny bag/purse and it has wheels, it is at a minimum considered a carry-on, so you'll have to pay for it, and sometimes check it. Every time I take a cheap flight I hear some poor flight attendant explaining how having wheels puts it in a specific price class.
