Are you unable to see the podcast’s thumbnail image? (If you find the episode-specific thumbnails confusing you can disable the “Use episode cover” option)
That’s why disabling episode image in list and use podcast image is a good solution to solve that. When toggle on, all episodes from same podcast will always use same image so you can easily know to which podcast they belong.
I don’t really want to disable the episode images.
As andben said, some of my podcasts change the image every episode. I think that it brings another layer of immersion. It is a part of whole. In some cases, I’m sure that someone spent a lot of time and effort to create unique artwork for each episode to make it special.
My favorite artwork comes from Jack Rhysider and his Darknet Diaries. Others are: Spooked, Radio Rental, This American Life, and many more.
I feel like I would be missing out if I disabled this option.
I completely agree, and am glad that the episode artwork is still seen when you look at an individual episode as well as when you list the episodes for a particular podcast. The main point of suppressing episode covers is so the podcast is clearly recognized in the Inbox and Queue (as your request emphasizes).