What exactly do you have to do twice?
I like it because I don't need a box sitting by my TV with yet another remote to keep track of. I just use my phone or tablet like I normally do except it plays on the TV, that's a perfect solution for me. And any of our mobile devices can be the "remote" without needing special apps or whatnot, it's a great solution. I think of it as my casual HTPC. And now with the SDK made available to all devs, I expect the functionality to take off even more. A Roku doesn't cut it for me, Chromecast is better for someone who relies on their mobile device like me, and the icing on the cake is the $35 price tag.
for example if you want to say fast forward to a certain time point on a chrome cast on netflix.
you have to go on your phone, which then you hit fast forward, on netflix it will buffer to that point even if you are casting it. then the chrome cast has to seek to that point and buffer up to that point too. so yoau re sending so many requests to netflix and to your wifi network etc.
i mean, with say a roku you start the stream. you want to fast forward its lightning fast. i think part of this might just be the protocol chromecast uses, but the roku i think also supports preview frames so it just plain feels faster. and i dont even have the fastest roku and it still feels much much faster. i'd say the only thing i really like about the chromecast is youtube on there is really easy to use because its just a lot easier to search through youtube on a phone thana roku. but even then theres other set top boxes with keyboards on the remotes (i really wish roku made like a super remote with a keyboard. that is one thing something like the vizio costar actaully has right, the keyboard on the back for searching),
anyway... im comparing a chrome cast to things like my last set top box which was the WD tv live plus (the newest one). a roku 2 2013 edition and the google TVs i've used at work.
i'd say honestly the little lags and having to load things is annoying. yes using your phone is cool sometimes, but because of the way the protocol works and the latency it is just irritating to me anyway (besides you can use your phone to control a roku or WD tv live or apple tv also).
plus at this point the hardware is terrible. even once they sign up more people, its based on a cut down google TV. and google TV is already relatively bad. so whatever it is, things just seem to play more smoothly on the other devices. especially the roku. i mean just try fast forwarding on a chrome cast vs a roku. now from what i've learned at work, part of the issue could be that widevine vs HLS (apple / roku) or playready (microsoft standard which is actually really great for streaming video) and that protocol lacks some features. dont quote me on that , but yeah... this is not exactly a non competitive segment, but google always does this. they half ass their way into a segment.
i mean some of teh newer HDTVs like the 4k sets the UIs and just the experience feels a lot better. some of that is the fact that sets are bringing out tegra 4 level hardware, but some of it is just that they put more thought into it i guess. i don't know, chromecast is a cool idea, but honestly google has taken so long to get traction on it, its more or less good as dead at this point.