Just turn off a bunch of skin settings in Kodi to remove things you don't use, like music, weather, pictures. Then you have "Videos" and right below that is a button that goes directly to "Files". Any plugged in USB drive gets automatically listed, and you can manually add direct network shares, even to a specific folder. That should be very few clicks, but we can go further. We should be able to start up directly in the "Files" view upon opening Kodi.

It's kind of a PITA, but think of Kodi as a blank canvas. It feels like too many clicks because the defaults kind of (very much) suck for certain use cases. Once set up you're done, and what you want is very few clicks away (if any). The library features are totally optional.

VLC player, MX player and Archos Player are pretty nice. VLC is free, while the other two have paid options. (If you bought them for your phone, then you won't have to but them again). The free version of Archos has a lot of ads, but overall it is a nice-looking app. It even gives artwork and details for your collection. The other two are just straight-forward in the sense that they show the file and that's about it.

I felt the same, I'm now using Archos player which has a nice AndroidTV interface and can scan for new content on network shares in the background.

Not sure if this is what you're looking for but I'll post it here anyways. Michelle Bak is working on a new app called Jolly but it's still in Pre-alpha and I'm not sure if he's continuing work on it or not, here's a YouTube video of Jolly (pre alpha) working on Android TV looks like a simple alternative to Kodi, there's also Mizuu (it's predecessor) but you'll have to sideload it from his website because it's not available on the Google Play Store. I've never tried it but I might once it gets a stable release fingers crossed

Jolly (pre-alpha) - YouTube

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VBrMU2DNh4c

Jolly (pre-alpha) GitHub DL

https://github.com/MizzleDK/Jolly/issues/1

again it's pre alpha, and doesn't support tv shows yet but you could always give Mizuu a try here (I think that one does)

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MizzleDK/Mizuu-APKs/master/Mizuu_3.0.2.apk

Hope Michelle Bak continues to work on Jolly would like to give it a try when it reaches a stable release :)

Check out Plex. It seemed cleaner than Kodi, but not as powerful. However if all you want is stored media, it will work fine. Might need to have it served off a PC. Don't remember.

I'm not a huge fan of kodi but I feel like you did something wrong with your setup.

Have a look at this video and give it another try.

You can check plex which is a good competitor of kodi but not as diversified as kodi but still looks to fit your requirements. There are some other alternatives too like OSMC, Mezzmo and more which you can check here .

You need to add your external drive as a source in Kodi.

You also need to go into skin settings to remove; music, weather, etc.

You should do some of your own research into Kodi as well. It isn't complicated.