The biggest thing for me with ATV over Chromecast is the ease of use for my kids and xbmc. My kids (2 and 4) both can grab the ATV remote in any of the rooms and know exactly how to use arrows and a single button to get to what they want to watch.
Chromecast is a hot seller because of its low price point.
The company pushing Android TV the most forcefully right now is Nvdia. With its Google Fiber deal, a UK release, and software updates, Nvidia is really the only company making a compelling argument for Android TV. Hopefully, it will be compelling enough to get users to take the plunge.
As for the future, the launch of Apple TV and the new Fire TV mean Android TV will see limited adoption unless Google pushes it harder. Nvidia does not have the marketing reach to ensure adoption, despite providing a solution that competes with consoles, Steam Machines, streaming devices, and HTPCs.
It's starting to look like chromecast is an entertainment platform that can do some gaming and Android TV is a gaming platform that can obviously do entertainment.
Gaming will have to carry the load for Android TV to survive.
That's how I'm seeing it until this is handled. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-28/google-wants-to-break-cable-s-grip-over-set-top-tv-control-box
Personally, as I said over on engadget who also converted this article.. I feel like they missed an opportunity to discuss Google's approach compared to Apple's, or Amazon's. You don't get to talk to a Google product guy everyday!!
The interviewer seemed to miss the obvious. AndroidTV includes Chromecast, so the question is whether TV/STB manufacturers would choose to put Chromecast-only into their TVs rather than the whole of AndroidTV.
If we look at non-AndroidTV TVs (eg. WebOS based ones), they support steaming via eg. Miracast, but do any do Miracast only (i.e. no other UI)?