No one thought this. The problem is not that one person thought this was best but that the system is set up such that each individual is incentivized to make choices that collectively result in what you see here.

“I don’t care if they have all my data. I don’t have anything to hide”

I don’t even know what a reverse proxy is

I make the account for them. Then I log in as them and set it up so they only see my server. Then I send them the credentials and have them login

Does it work on a smart tv or roku or whatever?

Jellyfin is hardly a no-brainer. I set it up out of curiosity a few weeks ago and my first question was how do I give access to my friends and family. So I searched, and all of the results were talking about setting up a VPN or a reverse proxy or whatever. Man, I just want to tell my mom “install this app on your tv and log in”, which is exactly what Plex does.

I get that Plex is enshittifying, but pretending Jellyfin is a drop-in replacement is delusional.

What about a folder?

But why can I “just install a program” on my windows machine or on my phone and it is that easy?

No it hasn’t. Back this claim up with some evidence