What are you talking about. First time I set it up, had it running on my local network in less than 5 minutes. 5 more minutes for external (granted, already had the infrastructure for that in place).
Then maybe 20min going through the settings to personalize my account? And maybe another 20min looking if there are any plugins I wanted to use.
I don't think it's a year to setup the software. Rather a year to load it lol. I've spent probably close to 4 years loading content into my Plex server and I don't see any end in sight.
Yeah, it's free and open source. I just pointed it at a few folders of TV, movies and music that I downloaded years ago, and it catalogued them all, downloaded all the blurbs and posters.
There are jellyfin, Plex and emby shares you can subscribe to for cheap, try it out before blowing money and time on a set-up that needs constant tinkering, it's easy to just download an app and connect to your remote library somewhere that someone else spends time on. I use a shield I got 6 years ago, but now also the Amazon fire stick 4k max on another TV and everything is just easy and seamless while using a Plex share that's 9 euro per month.