The library auto-refreshes when you open the app for the first time each day. We didn't want to enable auto-refresh on every open in order to save data usage. We could maybe add this option in the settings though.
Discussion
If the auto downloads are set to any option except “never” it could poll the connection state and do a sync.
And have “auto download - never” display a disclaimer that listed episodes (episode name, pic and metadata) may not be available for playback. (I assume anyone that chooses never wants to personally choose which shows to download anyway)