I would have never paid for one, having used games consoles for streaming before it. But now that I've got it, I would find it difficult to go back.

The VLC app plays my entire media collection off my NAS without any config. None of the apps I've installed have had ads.

I'm sure a cheaper setup would work, like a mini-htpc running linux, but then my wife wouldn't be able to use it.

Personally, I prefer having the regular breaks every so often to allow you to get up, interact with your fellow humans, feel alive, etc. I detest the "whoops there goes 6 hours of my life with back to back to back netflix" that some people seem to covet.

That said, often times the ad slots don't even get filled, so instead of ads you go to a 2 minute break where they play some background music and show a video of fish swimming around or something.