[sodaddict]

I prefer video players that have a small player interface at the bottom with all the buttons and the timeline together, as well as being quickly responsive and exiting out immediately after hitting play. However, every Kodi skin i have ever used does pretty much the exact opposite.
I'm looking for a skin that has this kind of player, the same kind of player you'd see in full-screen VLC and full-screen DivX.
Does such skin with such player exist?

[Klojum]

A Kodi skin can be created/adapted, the Kodi player remains.
If all the metadata and fanart/thumbs is holding back the "being fast and exiting out immediately after hitting play" in your view, then maybe Kodi is not for you.
VLC, MediaPlayer Classic, MPV, are all standalone video players without the movie/tv show entourage.

[Gvasco]

It’s not an issue of skins but rather the fact that kodi is not a simple media player like VLC or QuickTime Player, but rather a media centre package. It’s an environment more equivalent to what’s offered by an Apple TV or Android TV but with more focus on ones own media with the possibility of accessing media from other web services via plugins. That’s simply the nature of Kodi.

If you want a simple player that simply plays video and other media files directly than look at Klojum’s suggestions.

[Hitcher]

To stop a video when you press back add this to your keymap -

xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<keymap>

    <FullscreenVideo>

        <keyboard>

            <browser_back>Stop</browser_back>

        </keyboard>

    </FullscreenVideo>

</keymap>

fTV is very minimalist -