We've been a predominantly Apple household for the last 10 years and I've owned Apple TVs since the original. But over the past couple years, the Apple TV lost it's luster and fell far behind the competition, so I've since moved onto Chromecasts, FireTVs, and now an Nvidia Shield TV unit. The only advantage the Apple TV offers is access to iTunes content, something I stopped purchasing years ago do to Apple's draconian restrictions. No Amazon content, no Google Play content on the Apple TV either---content I can access on pretty much every other device made today. The Shield TV and Fire TVs are such far more capable devices, I can't see Apple including anything in a new Apple TV that would entice me back.
I hear your point, but for me, I don't miss any of that stuff. I don't have a 4K tv, nor will I until prices come down and content increases. Amazon can be Airplayed to the ATV. Same with VUDU. I also buy almost all my movies on iTunes because when you buy just the digital code from online communities, new movies can be had for between $2-$5. Then you have it on everything - iPad, iPhone, Mac etc. It fits into my use case perfectly. I know it gets knocked all the time, but the ATV has been a great product for my family. And it saves us $80/mo by not needing cable.