I posted about this before the latest release (#314435). They acknowledged several issues which should have been fixed by now. However I still see some of the same issues and even some new ones.

Regarding rewards and promotions, it looks like their business model is encouraging subscriptions if you want to keep earning sats. I haven't subscribed yet because I would like to pay with sats not a Google account, which is the only option. Honestly I feel disappointed so I started using other apps for podcast listening.