I sideload all my firesticks (lite, 4K, max 4k and my 1 cube.).I got the cube mainly b/c the high-bitrate 2160p video was overheating even the max stick. Granted I usually get all my movies primarily from the Usenet (that's right). There are some semi-private groups out there who's posts avoid DMCA take downs and have some pride in the quality of their posts. Kodi to me is a royal pain in the ass, I got tired of fiddling around and playing hide and seek. Much of the side-load stuff just ain't as good since they busted Mobdro. I sideload TVTap on all my sticks, great for all kinds of sports, network stuff is ok but not 100% reliable. I have one of those 17 boxes of mine inside my home theater. I use that for audio through my 2.1 sound setup which is really good and I run USTVGO through a browser on the i7. It gets all the live network programing and National news from many sources as well as those specialty networks for animals, home, history, discovery network, Nat Geo blah blah blah.
That pretty much covers all I need. I try to stay away from the live stuff, that's for the GF. Frankly TV commercials make me crazy on many levels.
I do have Amazon Prime for the free freight so I get all their programming although I have already seen most of the stuff I care to watch before they offer it. I had a complimentary subscription from some gaming site for like $2 for the year. It wasn't worth 2 bucks to me. I think it was Paramount+ Ho hum. Then I got a free 6 months of Disney and Hulu with commercials. Didn't reup when that ran out, not worth it to me.
I probably missed some things, those above are my main sources Jan 2023. My firesticks do what I need them to do and continue to do so. Haven't had many problems with the firestick lineup since either what I was using closed or were busted and the operators ran into the "Trap".
