I'm not sure how far we can get into this, but there are standalone devices that make it easy. Costly up front for convenience. I've used one and the UI sucks though, you're right.I suggest trying it out for a month if you're curious, because it does has it own pros and cons. I find the interface clunky and took me a bit to get used to. It can get choppy if the bandwidth is slow. Getting fiber to the house cleared most of that up for us.
We have to sideload it though a firetv stick or apple tv box. We haven't been able to load it directly to a smart tv.