It’s an Apple Siri drop-in replacement, and I (and seemingly a lot of other people) mostly or entirely use an Apple TV. I think it fits the bill perfectly given the provisos about usage I mention—your mileage may vary, which is why I listed all the things it can’t do, almost none of which bother me. What I wanted was a remote that worked with my stereo system, so I can turn it on/off and control volume, and then handle all the menu navigation and playback features of an Apple TV. A lot of folks surely want more, but this wasn’t designed for them; it fit my needs so perfectly, I reviewed it.
I have owned and tried many universal remote controls over decades, and some of the remote controls that I have for other devices (my receiver, the Blu-Ray player, etc.) can be programmed as universal remote controls. There’s also HDMI-CEC, mentioned in the article, which is a sort of interlocked system that can help with managing power and audio and playback across interconnected devices.
In the end, I didn’t want a truly universal remote control; I wanted a more suitable (to my needs) Apple TV + audio remote control.
As for $30, if you can find a really good universal remote control for $30 that doesn’t cause your soul to leak out of your body while programming and using it, you should let us all know. I recalled that Harmony is often cited as the ne plus ultra of programmable universals, and it’s $100 for its full-featured version and $50 for a lower-end IR version (according to Wirecutter’s round-up).
I often prefer purpose-suited devices. (We play a DVD or Blu-Ray rarely, and when we do, we’re almost entirely pressing play/pause, so we don’t really need a universal to support that.)
My family is like that, not me; hence I didn’t set the old Siri Remote on fire and they use it.