I feel like the average consumer uses their Android TV boxes the way that they come.
The average consumer doesn’t buy android TV boxes from AliExpress. They use a Google Chromecast or a NVidia shield, or Amazon Fire TV.
The people who buy these devices from China are those deliberately looking for specific hardware to use for a specific application.
Hey, I started in 2003 too! What was your first distro? Mine was mandrake, from the cd on the cover of a magazine.