The issue with customOverlayViewController API is that it only allows to add a view controller with one row. Allowing user to move left and right as in Apple sample project. But if you have multiple rows then when trying to swipe down, customOverlayViewController is dismissed. User is not able to focus in a second row.
customInfoViewController behaves better allowing you to focus in multiple rows but not to set preferredContentSize height.
Our App has multiple rows so we couldn't use this option.
I submitted FB8042762 to address this issue. I discussed it with Dan during WWDC20 AVFoundation Playback Lab. He advised me to create a bug for this issue. He also advised to use the gesture recogniser since we support tvOS 12 but was concerned about possible issues with PiP in tvOS 14. Seems that his concern was correct.