Media consumption could be so much more enjoyable than it is now. We're a household of laziness, and repeating patterns. The Apple TV remains the default media faucet for us, beating out the Roku, PS4, and Xbox One as having the least amount of friction. Dinner prep begins while putting something on in the background. If it were easier I'd probably just play music through the HomePod. Instead, CNN, Stephen Colbert's monologue, or an episode of the French Chef with Julia Child may stream out.
While consuming the stream, I'll often run into a small item on my phone I want to share temporarily on the Apple TV: a new song, a video of the recipe we're making, an Overwatch League game. What I want to do is set a temporary exception to the current stream: play this media from my phone until it ends, then return to the original stream. Instead, I have to adjust my settings and turn AirPlay on for my phone, flipping all streaming content to come from my phone. Only when I'm done and I go back and disable AirPlay does the native content return to the Apple TV: even then it usually requires an additional 'menu' button press to get the original stream content to play once more.
I wish the 'play' button could be used to temporarily stream to a device, then release. The 'AirPlay' button requires too many steps.
Instead of providing a separate button to flick AirPlay routing on and off, why not provide long tap or 3D Touch options available when clicking the 'play' button on any given media? Bringing up a context sensitive drop down would allow you to project playback of only the content linked to the 'play' button to whichever device is selected. All of the component pieces to do this are there in Apple's hands already. They're so close to having something that would be so much less intrusive and annoying when it comes to consuming media on my terms. Especially in households with multiple people, give us a better way to share with each other and temporarily control the digital talking stick.