In the end I figure most people use it in exactly that way: it just presents a nice (big) header picture. (Based on actual content) And less in some idle hope of getting CTR's.

But: that would mean you could probably do without a carousel as well. (Think about just the header picture of your latest article, the most popular one or just a random one)

Nobody's going to sit and watch your movie one frame at a time. People go there for information, not static pictures. Making you wait to see things serves no purpose.

People go where for information?

If you are talking about e-commerce sites and think that a higher density of information will win-out over a pretty site you need to start being more data-driven.