Yes I know about kodi but I have a few issues with that for one it has a pretty outdated ui but this is not a deal breaker for me but it also doesn’t allow the opening of other applications like Netflix or jellyfin etc, you have to install a compatible plugin.
Are there any gnu/Linux desktop environments that are optimised for a home theatre time situation to be used with a remote or game controller? At the moment I will probably just use gnome or kde but it doesn’t work well at all with remote or game controller.
I went down this rabbit hole about a year ago, and didn’t have much luck. In the end, the best results I was able to get were from Steam’s Big Picture Mode on a Windows device, mostly launching Firefox (might have been Chrome?) with different launch arguments to immitate a smart TV.
Most available software either doesn’t support Linux well, doesn’t support streaming services and outside software, or doesn’t support non-kb&m input methods. You can get two, but never all three. You could try SteamOS, now that its out, but unfortunately my hopes wouldn’t be high for it to have all the apps you needs functioning.