Yeah, either it happened twice or I'm mixing up two games.
Swear I remember Kasparov on the other side of the board though...
Indeed videos, or just doing some study in general, are possibly superior to playing at the lower levels, at least blitz or bullet.
e4-e5 theory is terrifying (not that sicilian theory is much better, but I tend to feel less on edge with it) so I try to avoid it. But certainly many of the resulting positions are rich and instructive, from what I recall of watching great games from said positions. A good tip is to go into custom and change your minimum to -50, it, obviously, increases the probability of getting somebody higher rated than you, and if they are lower rated than you it won't be by a lot. But yeah honestly I swear Bowdler is the most common response I face. Nf3 is probably second lol. Mainlines seem more common when I play d4, most people go for typical set-ups.