And tragically most users prefer the auto playing previews. Theprimeagean has a YouTube video about how he tried to a/b test it before release thinking "no way that's what users would prefer" and was unfortunately wrong.

Well, there is a setting to turn it off.

My problem with turning it of is that if you _do_ want to watch the preview it's very cumbersome. Clicking on it goes to the movie/episode. So to get to the preview you have to go to the list of Episodes, scroll down (and try not to get spoiled) to trailers then play it. So I have one profile with it on and one with it off, depending on if I'm browsing or not.

Who's that and do they work for Netflix?

Tbh I don't mind the previews as long as they don't make the UI lag*. I was just pointing out that they don't save bandwidth.

* I'm also aware that they're blatant lies and have little connection with what's in the actual movie.

100%. Wasn’t trying to contradict your statement - just giving some additional context.

And he is a semi popular tech YouTuber that has risen to popularity in the last couple of years. I think he also streams on twitch but I’m not on that site so I can’t say. But he worked for Netflix for about 10 years.

A short, compressed, small video that's edge-cached beats always out a 4K stream, so it even works as a tactic to keep you in that overview longer.