Look I'm no fanboi but the AppleTV is really the best streaming device. I've owned them all. Roku, multiple Nvidia Shields, etc.

The only big flaw is really the lack of HDMI audio passthrough which will not be an issue for most users.

That's not at all true. It works just fine without owning any other Apple product. How do you think it requires you own an Apple product?

There was an issue where you couldn't accept accept an updated iCloud TOS without an iPhone. You could dismiss the prompt but it would keep nagging you whenever you turned the device on. I think it's fixed now.

In general, using the Apple TV I get the impression that Apple PMs are probably deep in the Apple bubble and the idea that someone might not have an iPhone is inconceivable to them.

Apple doesn't have PMs in the sense you're thinking of. This was a simply a bug.

Can you use Netflix, Hulu, etc with it through Android? Or are you stuck with that wimpy remote that looks like a 1st gen ipod shuffle? If that's true, I'll admit you can use it, but that is a painful, dated experience. "click left, click up, click up, click left"

You should try the remote, it’s blazingly fast and makes any other TV feel like junk. You just swipe no clicking needed. If you need to type there’s voice to text built in to the remote to either say or spell what you want.

Yes you can use all of those with the included remote which is easy to use and quite responsive. And all of them (minus Netflix) surface the shows you're watching up to "watch now" so you don't have to dig into any of them to continue watch your shows. I'm not aware of any use of an iphone which makes using the Apple TV easier.