you lose in that interval if the stock is down a lot, but you lose less than you would have with plain stock)

Yes. You always get to keep the premium. The problem I have is that most CC proponents double count the premium. They say "boost your returns by 2%-4%" (which means you spend/keep the premium) AND "the premium reduces your loss" (which means you don't keep/spend the premium).

Typical comment in a CC article: "By choosing the right stocks and options, you can generate consistent monthly returns of 2% to 4% per month."
"...generate passive income from your investment portfolio"
This article is titled: "How to Create 2% to 4% Monthly Returns with Covered Calls."

If you take the premium as income, you can't also use it to reduce the loss.

But...few stocks go "up a lot" every quarter. It's a pretty infrequent thing, for most stocks.

Doesn't seem to be the case for BRK.
Assuming that Yahoo historical quotes are right for BRK-A, 24% of months had a gain more that 5%.
PORTFOLIO VISUALIZER data shows 104 of 467 month (May'85 thru Mar'24) had return more than 5%. That's 22.2% of months. The average return above 5% was 9.75%.

For rolling quarters, 198 of 464 rolling quarters gained more than 5%. The average return above 5% was 13.77%.

What kind of premium are we looking at?
Looking at BRK-B at 396.92, what do you sell? The May 410? At 3.70.
If it goes out at 397, your position makes (397/(396.72 - 3.70)) = 1.0127%
For one month. Not bad, not bad at all.

OTOH, if you take the premium and spend it, you get (3.70/396.72) = 0.9326% monthly yield.

Not 2%-4%, but still.....

=========================
Now I'm curious about some other stocks. From google: "Similar to Apple, some other stocks that are good for trading covered calls include Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon."

{Damn, why didn't I buy MSFT in 1986? $10,000 grew to $71,053,756}
MSFT, 154 of 457 (33.8%) months were more than 5%.

AAPL, 195 of 469 months were more than 5%.

I'm going to cry.
I hope I did something stupidly wrong, but it seems straightforward. Download monthly returns. Sort. Boom. Count the number of months with greater than 5% return.