yes with new hacks and workarounds again and again it may go on for a while, but the way Amazon enforces its restrictions is no longer tolerable for me. With my Mi Box S as an example I have the newest ingenious Android TV 8.1, all apps work including YouTube, YouTube Live TV & Amazon Prime out of the box and you don't have to modify anything at all. Any app you don't need can be deactivated or uninstalled at any time. And about the high quality of Google Assistant compared to Alexa I won't start now...
And you don't need sideloading any more, it's all in the Google Play Store, Kodi, etc..
And faster than any Fire TV the Mi Box is also, both in the menu, and in Ultra HD with 60fps. Amazon's strategy of wanting to be like a closed system like Apple TV is ridiculous. It has only disadvantages, I really see no reason to buy a Fire TV again and then modify it.
This is just my opinion, but the google ecosystem has its own issues. I own a mi box and google completely f’d it up when they updated it to Oreo and it has run like garbage ever since. The mi box s is the same hardware with a slightly better wifi card, but really shouldn’t be considered a new version. But since they changed it slightly, they’ve been focusing on that, and the original mi box has been neglected. Also specwise it’s not faster than the new fire stick. It’s the same speed as the pendent.
Second, YouTube/YouTube tv issues are more due to google not allowing them on amazon, than anything amazon can control sadly. I do wish that would get sorted soon.
On google you can’t change the launcher either, nor can you run rooted apps, same as with fire tv.
The only difference I’ve come across so far is that Kodi is on google’s store and not amazon’s, but sideloading is necessary for a lot of things on both.
Regardless of all of that. Thanks for all the hard work, your efforts will be missed. Your fixes definitely do make the fire tv a better device.