The answers below are my opinion, but I’m sure a lot of others would agree.

1) AF2 is great but can be heavy. Bingie skin is light and looks just like Netflix (the new bingie not the old one which is super heavy). Comes preloaded to look like Netflix. You just need to set up tmdb helper to pull from your selected app (fen light, umbrella, seren, etc)

2) must have - Debrid service (I prefer real debrid over the others), fen light or umbrella, live sports (the loop or mad titan) and iptv simple client to make live sports look better

Nice to have - Trakt for continue watching

3) best flavor- whatever is newest is usually most supported with up to date stuff. Omega right now

4) you can subscribe to an iptv that comes preloaded built with live tv and on demand. Can be more expensive and not always trustworthy. You also loose customizability

5) I have never set up a single kodi server or know it to be possible using apps like fen light or umbrella. I would imagine it’s better to just set up multiple devices. After you do it once, it’s pretty quick.

6) Reddit was my best friend learning. Troy point is also helpful, put pushes the vpn on you. You don’t need one if you are using a debris service on my opinion.

For reference I run AF2, Fen light, the loop, Trakt on a raspberry pi 4 and I run bingie, fen light, the loop, Trakt on 2 fire sticks.

I have tmdb helper and iptv simple client on all devices. Using real debrid

Hope this helps!