[kbart]

Yes! Pause&wait was my default behavior on slow connections (i.e. smartphone in the middle of nowhere) and removing it is a huge step back. I mostly can't use Youtube on my phone anymore and forced to look for videos somewhere else, where this "old-fashioned" method still works. Is there any technical reasons that won't let the video download while paused?

[HappyTypist]

Apps are built for the average, everyday user. I'm sure their user testing has shown that the majority of users don't do the "pause and wait" ritual, and a large amount of pauses are never resumed.

So, they choose to save the bandwidth.