Is it really better than a loading indicator? For me, yes. It is a loading indicator, without any additional "noise". Also, the second-to-last pass is often q

Is it really better than a loading indicator? For me, yes. It is a loading indicator, without any additional "noise". Also, the second-to-last pass is often quite good, if not indistinguishable from the last one. So you have the full image already, while more details get filled in, instead of first having the top, then the middle, then the bottom, and to me that's less "jarring".