Been there done that. I prefer the Nvidia Shield, easier interface to navigate with a remote, I don’t have to login first, it rarely needs an update, no noisy fans, I don’t need to keep a physical keyboard connected to it, it’s way cheaper, I don’t need to mess around with codecs, and there aren’t a lot of unnecessary services and background applications hogging memory and cpu resources.
I get that most of this can be fixed or worked around on a htpc, but that’s effort I don’t have to spend on a Shield.
Then you weren't in the r/self-hosting or r/piracy communities. It comes from the fact that it supports most codecs. So when you want to watch almost any movie on Plex, the server won't have to transcode.
Idk why you insist on it being a psyop, but you do you. I tried to find an android device that had hardware support for H.264, H.265, and others and it's not much there. I believe Firetv 4K does but then you are getting a more locked down android with a bunch more ads.
I also use a Nvidia shield, very happy with it... Mostly. Clean, few ads, although they did add some banner ads for major streaming providers. But I don't mind seeing a banner for a few new shows
I love jellyfin I just wish I could access folder view for my metric ton of audiodramas. Sorting by album, artist, etc works great for songs, but not for longer form interconnected media like that. my file structure is already sorted I just want to be able to view that with the same program that I view everything else with
For video content, iirc, it's possible to browse the files just like you're asking for by creating a "Mixed film and programmes" library. The description of the type, when creating it, mentions: "Content will be displayed as plain folders." However, I don't know if that would also work for audiodramas? Possibly if you disable auto-fetching of metadata and provide it all yourself — either by creating .nfo-files and supplying correctly named images within the folder structure, or through the jellyfin app/webui.