Selfhosted

Hello! I never used *arr stack, and was interested into it, but one thing is stopping me. I see a lot of articles like how it is Netflix (or any other ONLINE theater) replacement, but as I see it is not online. I see two big factors that stops me from trying seerr + jellyfin (and other stuff in between):

1. You have two switch between those apps to search and then watch.
2. You can't watch media before it's completely downloaded.

I imagine sitting on coach, searching for show. Then you want to watch some, and then you have to wait half an hour for full episode (or even season?) to download. And then you can realize that you not into it and have to repeat all the steps above. Is my expectation correct? Please don't consider this as negative opinion. Just want to know what to expect. I remember an app called "popcorn time" that does not have that flaws.

UPD: Thanks for replies guys! I read it all. I will deploy the stack some day, but right now I will keep my current setup (which is qbittorent-nox, some public web jackett instance local for my country, and just simple smb shared folder). I also have some selfhosted debris alternative torrserver for times I don't have enough space to download full show.