To be clear, when I say don’t get stuck on words, I mean in the reading sense (without audio). In other words, some folks (including myself in the beginning) would repeat the same lesson over and over again until I KNEW every word in that lesson. I would not move on to another lesson, or I might move on to a new lesson, but would keep coming back to the old lesson to try and get every last word to known. You will not progress if you do this, because there will some words that will just simply give you trouble for a LONG time and there are many more words that won’t give you trouble. Ultimately you will get those pesky words to known, but it may take many iterations, but you will see those words in other lessons and different contexts which may help get the word to stick.
As for the specific problem you mentioned…Getting stuck on words and needing to pause the audio. My personal approach would be to read (only) the lesson in sentence mode. Try to guess the meaning of the words in the sentence and overall meaning of the sentence. Look up the individual words as needed. If I recognize any from this context I mark them known (I don’t worry if I can use it actively in speech). I also am not worried if I see I word I marked known and now I don’t know it. If that’s the case I set it back to “2” (personal preference). After going through this sentence, in this manner, if it’s still a little foggy what the sentence means, I’ll click the “show translation” for the entire sentence. In many cases, words will have a different meaning within a particular phrase or sentence. I then will read the original sentence again, trying to read the sentence now with the new information. Then I move on to the next sentence and do the same. When I’m in a beginner stages (and sometimes in intermediate and advanced) I’ll click the audio for the individual word, and/or I’ll play the audio for the sentence.
After I’ve gone through the lesson in this way, then I may play the lesson audio and just read along. Not necessarily trying to grasp the meaning or look up the words, but rather to associate the words and letters to the audio sounds. By the way, you can change the audio speed as well, if that’s helpful. I’ll also make time to just listen to these or other audio files when I can. I might repeat the lesson a few more times (later in the day or the next day) in the beginning stages as I think some repetition can be helpful. On the other hand, the most common words you will see again, in other lessons and contexts so repeating lessons is certainly not required. Plenty of people using LingQ do not repeat any lesson.
On your second point, I agree with what you’re saying to some degree. Like I mentioned, I think in the beginning stages, when the lessons are short and you’re still learning words, repeating the lesson, or staying within a certain topic may be beneficial. I’ve found after a few repeats of lessons though that I’ve “memorized” the lesson and it really isn’t helping me with the words. Again, the most common words will be seen in other lessons, articles, and contexts.
You’ll also find in the mini-stories there is repetition within the lesson of certain words…or at least certain words may be featured but in various forms (present, past, first person, third person, etc.).
So, just my two cents worth. Others may have different approaches, and to some degree you may want to tweak what you do to fit your senses. There’s a lot of different ways to use LingQ, even within just the “reading, listening, lingqing” general framework.