I'm much more likely to give an unknown movie a chance sitting on my couch than I am making an effort to go to a theater. I will pretty much give anything a chance for 15-20 mins streaming, and have no qualm turning it off if I just don't like it. I have found some decent things this way, and just stop watching stinkers (more than I've enjoyed).

I believe this is has a huge portion of Netflix's ability to get tons of people to watch their content. Fish in a barrel, trapped audience, whatever cliché you prefer. Of course I agree with the hype machine and self-promo within their apps as you've described as well. Combined together, it's a powerful marketing/promotion result.