I am looking for a privacy respecting android tv box/stick

It just doesn't exist. You will need some kind of mini PC like Raspberry Pi. I Use a mini PC from Beelink.

If you just want a media station with some basic apps a Raspi with LibreELEC is perfect. Your TV remote will work out of the box and there are plugins for Netflix, Disney, etc... available.

If you want a little more, like a working browser and / or some light gaming I would suggest a full OS with a little beefier PC like the ones available at Beelink.

How do you use your Beelink? More specifically what OS (and maybe core/most used apps) do you have installed? How do you interact with it (eg - wireless keyboard/mouse, USB IR receiver, etc.)?

Any downside to this approach compared to using the Smart TV/Android TV/Apple TV features?
- My go to OS is Nobara KDE which is a gaming spin of Fedora. It has the best compatibility out of the box for my stuff. I'm sure other distros would word too tho.
  
  Most used apps are Firefox for streaming, Steamlink for playing games from my gaming pc, Retroarch for psx and snes gaming and kodi to watch the content on my local network
  
  Interaction is with a keyboard like this one
  
  Downside is obviously that it is less plug and play than a commercial media product. You need to set up everything initially, you need to update it and sometimes an update breaks something and you'll need to fix it
  
  Upside is awesome tho: no walled garden. It's your gadget. You can do anything you like with it. No app is gonna track anything you don't want
How do you use your tv remote to control Jellyfin?
- I don't use jellyfin and I stopped using a raspi as media pc. My new media pc doesn't have an IR receiver so I use a mini bluetooth keyboard. While I used a raspi on my tv I had to dowload the correct IR package for the raspian distro I used and configured it. Or you could use Librelelec which has the IR support OOTB and check if there is a jellyfin plugin
I have a semi-decent Intel NUC that got decommissioned from being a game server, so it's not really in use.

Do you have any recommendations for a Linux distro or home media OS that I could set it up in the living room to play some emulators, watch Plex off my NAS, maybe some adblocked youtube or spotify, etc?

Pick up and play would be key. A wireless keyboard would be fine but a remote would be ideal
- I don't know if the NUCs have IR receivers OOTB, which you will need to use a standard remote. I know the raspberries have them.
  
  For best compatibility with NUCs I would just google for which distro to use. You're definitely not the first person to use them as media PC. I use Nobara on my Beelink and everything worked OOTB, but that's different hardware. Once you have a distro running you have all the options of a PC to run Plex, Firefox, Spotify, etc...

A few months ago I bought a second hand Nvidia Shield TV (€40), flashed LineageOS on it. Very happy with the device, especially the performance.

I use Jellyfin, SmartTubeNext and some VOD TV apps from my country. I've Adguard Home on my Proxmox server (can also be a Raspberry Pi) that I use for DNS adblocking, so we can watch VOD TV without any ads. Works really well :)

We've switched to this from cable TV and my family loves it, we can watch anything we want without any ads and FREE!

Only problem (not for me) is that Netflix doesn't work on it without GAPPS.

+1 for the Nvidia Shield and LineageOS route. Keep in mind that LineageOS doesn't work with some proprietary features on the box such as:

Dolby Vision

AI Upscaling

Although this hasn't really bothered me. This solution is basically set and forget. Is stable enough to leave at my parents house with almost no complaints.

Also another weird usecase... I use these nvidia shields for my LAN parties as thin clients.
- What software do you use for the thin client part? I'm really happy with Moonlight, just Wayland support (no cursor) is a little broken.
- I knew about DV not working. But how about regular HDR? I’m interested in going this route but would prefer to keep HDR.
Isn't lineage os a discontinued project?
- CyanogenMod is discontinued. LineageOS is alive afaik.

The $20 Walmart onn-branded box (2021 version) supports LineageOS. Also the Google ADT-3 box, along with other Amlogic devices.

You will have to build a ROM yourself, since Android TV doesn't have an open source launcher, and usually comes embedded with GApps. You can replace the launcher with Leanback On Fire, which is a TV-friendly, open source launcher.

https://xdaforums.com/t/unofficial-lineageos-21-for-amlogic-gxl-gxm-g12-sm1-ne-family-devices.4649881/

I believe it's more about what you do to the system, than about each box you can buy.

I have not heard of any one android TV box being more privacy respecting than others. In the end they're all running Android TV. However there are a bunch of things you can do to debloat your system to minimise processes etc... Y nvidia shield at least let's me disable any system app I want. You can ofc sideloads apps, for example you can:

Projectivy Launcher, instead of stock launcher. This launcher looks alot better and also avoids the new fullscreen ads.
SmartTube, instead of YouTube. It's YT but without ads and has sponsor block.

If you want true privacy than you're gonna want a Linux PC of any sort connected to the TV instead.

I'd suggest a raspberry pi. You can run lineageos on it without gapps, or libreelec if kodi is enough for you. This optio nis not only better than tv boxes for privacy, but is also much more durable, since you can usually install a newer android version later, while tv boxes rarely get updates.

Android is not privacy respecting by design. Your best option is to use a normal PC running Linux. However that has its own drawbacks, like lack of HDR support, no Dolby Vision or TrueHD, incompatibility with streaming services DRM.

I guess if you have a firewall in your network you can block a bunch of ports and severely limit the outgoing traffic of your box or alternatively to install some privacy oriented third party ROM on your box .

As an alternative to an Android TV, you could look into the Plasma Bigscreen project. Run it on whatever hardware you have available.

Plasma Bigscreen is an open-source user interface for TV's. Running on top of a Linux distribution, Plasma Bigscreen turns your TV or setup-box into a fully hackable device. A big launcher giving you easy access to any installed apps and skills. Controllable via voice or TV remote.

Bump. Really interested as well!

What did you decide on?

I got myself an ONN
- ONN?

I don't know what your criteria is other than privacy. This guy's post looks interesting.