my solution is smart TV with restricted VLAN. then it can use jellyfin or whatever I feel like. but I can't recommend that to the average joe, who does not even have any network equipment capable of restricting a port to a VLAN.

Seriously. any recommendation that does not solve this problem is at most a tech demo. remote control, preferably without the fragile smartphone. and no airmouse, that's terrible even on my LG TV. hardware side it's simple, get an USB IR receiver, or use the HDMI-CEC signals coming from the TV. but there is nothing to tie it into the linux desktop.