This “no mans land” you speak of is probably 99.999% of home assistant users. Managing docker is not something that most people want to do or know about.

I just want it to be on par with the Roku or it’ll wind up in the trash heap

in the nicest way possible. lower your expectations. or accept the data-selling, or VPN through europe so you can deny the ads.

Look for air mouse. It’s basically a wiimote. Uses gyroscope to pretend to be a pointer device. You’ll need that because you’re basically going to need to use a web browser if you want to go down this path.

It’s not a nice experience but all the nice experiences you won’t like.

Solar panels and mining crypto when the sun is out and electricity is free. Nothing else will bring you any profit. And it’s unlikely you’ll be able to mine anything in any time length that is useful

All the TVs built in stuff is not going to be the best experience. Doubly for self-hosted. A tv with android os, or a dongle inserted into a tv will do much much much better than samsung or lgs apps. An appletv too but then you’re spending a lot more

Multiply your server wattage by 8 hours. That’s how much battery you need. It’s probably not going to be a cheap investment.

The alternative would be to keep your ups and invest in a generator you can kick on if there is a power cut, but if it’s every day, that might get rough. Technology connections figured out a build it yourself solution a few years ago https://youtu.be/1q4dUt1yK0g?si=8WOTue9-zGghWlxY