Perhaps part of the problem is that exact "coasting" mentality that you mention. Autoplay disincentivizes users to seek out their own content, which would help

Perhaps part of the problem is that exact "coasting" mentality that you mention. Autoplay disincentivizes users to seek out their own content, which would help build the skills which are useful for finding new, interesting information on the internet. The deeper philosophical question seems to be whether it's more desirable for people to have the skills to control their own education or whether it's more desirable to optimize tools for bringing educational resources to people. You can go a bit deeper than that and ask whether it's more desirable to have a population of independent thinkers or like-minded thinkers. We'd probably be better off with a bit of both. I prefer to frame these kinds of arguments in terms of educational materials, which you can kinda loosely call most forms of media.