ive never used Emby, and Kodi i havent used for quite some time, maybe almost 15 years. aside from it probably being quite different from when i used it it worked well at the time.

moved to jellyfin after plex was an absolute nightmare to setup on linux.

jellyfin is just so easy to use and like you said, just works

on windows i used mp3tag, and on linux i use puddletag

no, but i do use a VPN to torrent whatever few movies worth watching that they shovel out