> As in, he sees media as some sort of ranked ladder where everyone wants to climb as high as possible.

You're projecting pretty hard here. That's what you think of when he says he thinks of them as a videogame. You do know that "games" on netflix are basically movies? See the recent https://www.netflix.com/games/82112833

You seem quite out of touch with what the state of media and games in general if the first thing you thought of was a game with a ladder.