I agree with you. The thing about fighting is to know when not to. It's actually war strategy in The Art of War which is still used somewhat as a guide by modern militaries the world over.
While I do think the guy is a pussy for not standing up for himself the first time (when he said "thank you" - most likely nervous and couldn't think of anything else), I hardly fault him for it. He's in a place that he's not accustomed to, with a lot of people who are sociopaths, coward or not, he made the smart move by leaving.
He was caught in a catch-22 anyway. If he fights because someone calls him cute, that's not defending himself. Then real charges would have been brought up against him. That's not a place anyone wants to get themselves in. You really don't want to have to "learn how to fight" in jail, anyway. No do-overs in jail.
I've been in a ton of fights, most because I was stupid and/or drunk. Lost many, won a few. I have even fought in jail once. Forgot why, but I remember getting pepper sprayed by a guard and thrown in an empty cell (We were in a drunk tank). That is to say that I can stand up for myself, but if I was in his situation, I'd be out. But I probably wouldn't have been in the situation because I wouldn't have said, "thank you" if someone called me cute. Again, he was probably so terrified, that was the first thing that came to his mind. Some people can just handle stress than others.
So, yeah, he was a coward, I mean let's call a spade a spade, but jail ain't the place for nervous nellies, so he surveyed his options, one of them being get the fuck out, and he made the smart play.
Again, in war, picking when and when not to fight is a better strategy than fighting needless battles. Had the guy stayed in, and even if he finally fought, the rest of his stay would have been torture.
He was a pussy, but he was a smart pussy when it really counted. He was kind of stupid up until then.
What the other person said, but also check out VPN's. The 2 big ones that I know of are NordVPN and ExpressVPN. Let's you change the location of where Netflix (and I think hulu) thinks you are so that you can watch region specific content. Definitely do your own research but it is certainly something to consider