I just contacted Netflix to give my feedback about this, and I recommend that if it still bothers you, you do the same. (And if it doesn't bother you: Awesome! There should still be an option to turn it off.)
Longwinded sidenote:
I actually contacted Netflix by phone to offer the suggestion, and the Netflix rep told me that "actually, Apple creates the app. Netflix doesn't create the app, but every hardware maker creates their own Netflix app in-house, like on a Sony smart-TV, Sony makes their Netflix app." -- This is obviously wrong! But he insisted this was the case and that I should contact Apple to give this suggestion. I told him that this issue still exists on the Netflix website and across all other apps I've used, so he did write down this feedback for the Netflix website team.
I did call the Apple support line that Netflix guy relayed to me. Apple guy's response to this idea that Apple makes the Netflix app was basically, "lol. no. that's not true." But he said they do communicate with some of the content providers, like Netflix, and he could still send this feedback along. (He also agreed that this is an annoying problem and they need to fix it.)
Sor -- yeah. If you want the option to turn this feature off, send your feedback to Netflix. And if they try to tell you "Netflix doesn't make the Netflix app," politely roll your eyes at them and make sure they write down your suggestion.
They absolutely need to give the option to turn this off, either through each Netflix app, or in the settings on their website the same way you can turn of automatically playing the next episode of a TV series.
