CLI-centric does not sound great for an HTPC, though. I think Manjaro is not bad choice for hassle free TV computers with modern hardware. It has much better hardware support than Ubuntu out of the box. Updates rarely break something other than Gnome (I find anything else incredibly hard to use on a TV) extensions. It does not get in the way and it rarely needs my attention.

Yeah, it's a easy use. That's a major plus in my book. I really don't want to babysit my appliances.