That must have been a long time ago. Gate checks going to baggage claim has been the policy for many years (except strollers, car seats, etc..). You might have lucked out randomly once or twice and they put the wrong tag on it or something. I don't recall ever seeing an ordinary suitcase being brought up to the jetway unless it was tagged as having a c-pap or something in it. That's usually a regional jet thing where the bins are so small that nearly everyone has to gate check so they bring them all up.
Agreed that the new process sucks so far. The algorithm telling them when the bins will be full seems to have a quick trigger finger. The whole thing is an effort to reduce the turn times and avoid the delays from when people would get on with a suitcase and spend 10 minutes going all the way to back looking for bin space before having to go back upstream to gate check it right at departure time. I get the intent, but clearly the algorithm needs work. I've noticed a few people lately walk down with a gate-check tag on the suitcase simply remove the tag and board with it with bin space still available.