I think the MiBox would do well for you. Personally, I'd probably spend a bit more and get a Shield (if you can find a used or refurbished one, or get one on sale, you can get it below $150), as it'd give you more performance for video decoding and let you run a Plex server on the box if you so chose. But for your specific use case, the MiBox would be fine. It'd give you pretty much all your needs and wants (networking is wifi only out of the box, but you can add a USB adapter for ethernet).

Yes. It'll work as a budget option. Not sure about a drawing tablet though. That might need special drivers? Standard input/pointing devices should work though.

Nvidia Shield would give you a lot more power though.

Mi box holds its ground quite well. It has 5ghz WiFi so based on your router you can have 800mbps speeds. I feel that assuming your WiFi is decent, that the cable is not really necessary. Even 4k, having 50 mbps is enough. Your mileage may vary and there are some rips that really push the bitrate up but alas, those are exceptions. As for everything else, drawing tablet? What the heck, really? For what?

Mi Box needs an additional USB3 > Gigabit ethernet adapter, people usually buy the Ugreen branded ones or ones with ASIX chipsets in them. It does have an inbuilt combined Optical/3.5mm audio out port.

NVIDIA Shield would be a far more powerful solution, it already has GigaE LAN built in and a much much faster and more powerful GPU in it vs the budget Mi Box.

Android tv devices support the Android tv app which provides an on screen keyboard/mouse option for your phone or tablet, turning it into a remote control.

They also include software for Chromecast. This let's you play content you found on your computer or phone through the Android tv box by hitting a single button and casting it to your player. Helpful if you want to have a party where the guests can queue YouTube videos for instance.

With a single usb port and no Ethernet on the mi box you'll probably need a usb hub, ideally one with a built in gigabit Ethernet controller, should you want to also use a physical keyboard, tablet, or external mouse and not use wireless. I've personally found the wireless more reliable than an adapter.

The mi box has a headphone jack which offers optical out, you may need a special cable and I'm not sure if pass through works with this well.

I've had a WD live and they were great boxes. If you don't need 4K support, don't play a lot of high bitrate (100mbps or higher) the mi box is great. If you want 4k support with Android tv that has hardware additional audio out, there is no good choice I'm aware of. Most rely on HDMI/ARC/CEC all over the cable, invalidating older technologies which are more than adequate.

WDTV user myself for many years. Mine still works but was spinning blue circle more often and had to reboot. I needed a box just like it for my two external drives. I bought an A95X F2 for $35 shipped from Ali Express. Comes with Ethernet. Two USB 3.0. Android 9 , 4 GB memory.. installs all Google play store apps. I use Kodi to play from drives.. excellent replacement

I went with a Mecool KM3 instead of the mi box s, because it has better specs cpu and ram, but also because i use it primarily for game streaming from my pc, because it has built in 100mb ethernet.