My living room TV has been powered by a Chromecast with Google TV (4K) ever since I moved into my current apartment, and it's admittedly a big upgrade from using LG's old webOS interface. But Google TV is still a bloated launcher for this device's processing power, and I find it can be pretty sluggish as a result.
I thought that was something I just had to live with, but as it turns out, I was wrong. The community has created custom launchers for Android TV devices, and by moving away from the default Google TV launcher, I unlocked a much better experience with the content I care about and much better performance.
Google TV isn't a great launcher
And Google doesn't want you to move away from it
The official launcher on Google's TV streaming devices, such as the Chromecast with Google TV, is just called Google TV, and it's not entirely terrible for a TV. You get some recommendations for content at the top, your apps next, then more recommendations from individual streaming services you've signed in to.
There are a couple of problems with this approach, though. First, promoted content doesn't always mean it's content you actually want to watch. I find interesting content much more often by recommendation of actual people than by some kind of algorithm, and if I do want to indulge and look for something new on a whim, I'd rather open a specific app and look for it than have it shoved…