This is why some people are turning to piracy for a more pleasant experience. It reminds me of when DVD producers started using unskippable intros to their DVDs - it's basically being hostile to the customers.
I have a Beelink n100 device running linux. These lil beelinks are great devices. They can be picked up for ~$140. Then i just keep a look out for cheap 10+tb datacenter drives. For example, I snagged a 12tb one for $75 the other day. Toss those into my raid array.
I self host plex, web servers, samba, etc. Right now I have ~100tb of space. I even self-host a great google images alternative called Immich.
I use a private torrent tracker and usenet to acquire most of my media. I do those because they're just so easy. It's pretty rare I can't find something within a minute or two.
If there is a legal way of obtaining a real copy of media I'll usually do that. Most of my music library is legal, purchased directly from artists, bandcamp or soundcloud.
I also have 2gb fiber internet which is helpful in all this. I wouldn't be able to get away with some of the stuff without the upload bandwidth of fiber.
There's also the issue of older stuff not always being available on streaming sites - IIRC 28 Days Later wasn't available until the new film made it popular enough). Similarly, the BBC Oppenheimer series didn't get put onto their iPlayer service until 2023.
Yup! There are a ton of great movies that aren't available on streaming services for really dumb reasons, such as music copyright issues or the artist had a disagreement with a distribution company.
I dumped prime when they added adverts.
Comments mention The Expanse, and they're right. I'm currently watching it, on Blueray. It's not the price I find objectional, it's the adverts.
(I actually went to resubscribe to prime when Clarksons Farm season 3 came out, but there was no option to subscribe on my tv without adverts)