Just take all of the apps off the top bar and put other apps up there. Any app on the top bar can control the hero banner.

At least there's a setting to make the 'TV' button take you to the home screen instead of the Apple TV+ app, and unlike Roku when monitoring network traffic the Apple TV is pretty quiet when not in use, unlike the Roku that is constantly chattering with ad services... ads on the home screen.. yuck.

The Apple TV app is completely optional (and I hope it stays that way). The inly time I open it is to watch Apple TV+ shows.

P.S. They made the homescreen button goback to A the Apple TV app a while ago. This behavior can be changed go make it go back to the home screen.

The TV app is the single greatest feature of the Apple TV, though. I have one list of shows I am watching (sans Netflix because they are petty, I don’t subscribe to them for more than a month at a time to binge a few shows though); multiple, even, because each person in the house has their own.

How do? I don’t notice any push to watch Apple stuff when I navigate directly to Netflix or Prime Video...