Which software was ahead of its time?

Okay, I’m probably super ignorant and in need of a lesson… Every piece of DLNA software I’ve ever messed with sucked and was a massive security and privacy issue? I haven’t looked at it much, but it didn’t seem worth it? Is it good? What’s good about it?

The protocol is fine. Just fine. It lacked authentication and transcoding, builtin thumbnails, content metadata.

Without authentication or transcoding it didn't have the public umph it needed to get people to spend some decent time/money on graphical interface.

I've honestly never seen a GUI client that was even half reasonable to try to find a piece of media. Most of them are just generic file folder layouts. It's really no great surprise that Plex, Jellyfin and Emby push them out of the environment completely.