The best way to build ratio on TorrentLeech regardless of one's download or upload bandwidth is to use about 2GB of the initial 15GB given to new accounts to download 100 torrents that are at least 15MB, subsequently seeding those torrents 24/7 to maximize continuous TL point gain. After getting enough points you can use them to boost your ratio.
Guess I'll have to see if it's available anywhere then; thanks for the suggestion!
Definitely true; while it would have been more fun setting up something like a Pi4 with Plasma Bigscreen to avoid content ecosystems, it seems that choosing between a Google TV or Fire TV stick or a USB-supporting BluRay player will be a more economical option. Haven't delved much into custom launchers before, but it seems that might be a good solution for the sort of minimalistic UI I'm looking for.
While I certainly have a budget, the problem with the lowest-end Google TV / Android TV devices is that while they work fine for their intended purpose of streaming, they're less likely to flawlessly support the most demanding of video codecs while processing video output locally via VLC or another media player.
Unfortunately it's a relatively new TV that just happens to not be a smart one. Having helped my other relatives pick an inexpensive Google TV powered smart TV specifically for its VLC compatibility, I would have preferred to have done the same in this case, but hopefully I can find something that'll work all the same.
Without port forwarding, torrent clients can only connect to a fraction of the total number of seeders.