[gerard143]

I guess that's a possibility - still works pretty well for me - though I've not checked out 23.976 vs 24.000 stuff in detail (tvOS 14.5 introduced 1000/1001 support at last). Last release appears to have been November 2020...

Yeah that is what I was afraid 

Paying good money for a strip down app of the real thing
and being reliant on that dev to hopefully keep updating is not good

Yep - there's no perfect solution if you want high quality Netflix, Prime, Disney+ and ATV+ and Kodi on the same box - there are always compromises.  The cost of the app is minimal (like two coffees and cakes in a coffee shop) so that's not a huge barrier to me.  Being able to run MrMC on the same platform I watch the DRM services on, and which has a great UI and remote (now the ATV 4K v2 remote is out...) is a good compromise for me (I don't need add ons) and the ATV 4K v2 has a great CPU so is very snappy and responsive (plus it does 4:2:2 HEVC hardware decode, and has enough grunt for 1080i 4:2:2 h.264 software decode and deinterlace which has come in useful for me - nothing other than Intel platforms will do that for me otherwise)

If I were going purely for cost-benefit and had no requirement for DRM sources I'd go AMLogic and CoreElec, or begin to consider the Pi 4B + LibreElec now it has HDR, 12-bit video output, and HD Audio support, and deinterlacing is back (though avoid this if you rely on 4:2:0 for UHD p50/p59.94 - which is niche).

Shield TV falls between two stools for me - it's similar price to the Apple TV 4K v2, but with poorer DRM support.  Kodi support is better than the ATV 4K (HD Audio bit streaming and Python add-ons), but not better than the AMLogic solutions (ignoring DV)

Can you speak more in-depth to what the Apple TV 4k v.2 can and can't do when it comes to all things playing ripped discs.   Curious especially about 1:1 rips.   Can it even play them without transcoding first.  What surround formats is it not capable of playing, etc.