For me it was much simpler to just add it as a line in the field in my router settings than trying to find a launcher that was better while looking decent.
I also like the look of the launcher minus the ads as well, so that might play into it.
I'm not worried about it breaking any features tied to the ads, and I haven't had any problems in like 2 years I've used it.
This is what I have ended up running with nextcloud as the server.
I also have home assistant syncing to CalDAV so that I can automatically create/remove tasks.
Fun fact for shield owners:
If you block this domain with your dns ad blocker, the default launcher will only show ads for the YouTube, Google TV, and Google Play Store apps (not individual shows). I find these to be far less annoying as they use muted tones.
androidtvwatsonfe-pa.googleapis.com
If you have already setup your device and currently see ads, you need to reset the android tv home application data to get rid of them. This will temporarily show you the old dashboard, but the new one will load eventually (without ads).
Last I checked, Joplin does not use a folder structure that is easy to port over. Their files are all id's instead of usable file names, so without Joplin, you won't be finding anything.
They are still plaintext .MD files though.
If you live in the US, you can get your mail sent to your email inbox every day you are getting something that is directly addressed to you (i.e., not spam). It's called USPS Informed Delivery.
It doesn't always work if they get your address slightly off (say they put STE instead of APT), but it's a lot better than nothing.
So does duckduckgo!
Or perhaps commenting asap so that you have to wait the longest after commenting.