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I've gotten a bit obsessed recently with the idea of one bag for travel. I got a 30L backpack I stuffed it with an absurd amount of (carefully chosen, but still far from "essential") equipment that would be enough to and it all fits very comfortably, leaving room for 3-5 days of clothing (assuming I will wear on myself the heaviest, bulkiest clothing while traveling).
And when I say an absurd amount of equipment, I mean stuff that would make any minimalist shake their head. I have a laptop, a mechanical keyboard, a folding laptop stand, a travel router, and optionally I bring a portable second monitor.
I have a hard time understanding how I ever needed checked baggage, let alone feel constrained by only having an allowance of one.
*EDIT: A sketchbook (and pencil and eraser), tons of electronic security related gizmos, a game controller, chargers and cables for everything, 2 retractable ethernet cables and 1 retractable HDMI cable... An international solution for plugging in and charging everything. I'll grant the bag is probably heavy, or so I've been told by people trying to pick it up, but while I'm not exactly in good physical shape, one thing I've always had for me is being a pack mule, the bag weighs subjectively very little to me.
Keep in mind that the size of the person makes a huge impact - I have enormous feet, any time I need more than one pair of shoes (lets say I'm traveling for a wedding and need dress shoes and sneakers) then my packing is totally fucked. Same stuff applies to most of my clothing, although to a lesser extent.
In contrast my various partners I've had in my life have been mostly petite women who could fit an entire wardrobe in my suit bag.
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IMO the practically available volume is the biggest advantage of using a wheel-less bag. On a standardish 22"x14"x8" (~55x35x20 cm) international carry-on size bag, one with no wheels can easily have 25% more interior volume than an identically box constrained wheeled bag. Especially those four castor bags you are losing a full 3 inches off of the bottom of the bag. People also underestimate the volume used for the collapsing handle and structure to transmit the load to the wheels.
In practice for me, this means that I can fit a "normal" amount of stuff in a max size personal item 18"x14"x8", and never have to worry about being forced to pay for a carry-on or have my bag gate checked.
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