Yeah, the status quo is a bit disappointing. In a technical point of view, it's pretty nice. But for UX, there are simply too many moving parts (Stadia App + Chromecast + Stadia Controller + monthly subscription), which defeats its own purpose.

Hopefully, most of this artificial requirements will be gone in a coming year, but it's still far from its true vision. Clicking a "Play now" on Youtube does make a lot of sense, but the important question is "when".