How can I prevent the Android TV launcher from switchting to the new Google TV inspired UI? When I uninstall updates and delete data for the app and disable auto-updates in the Play Store, I have the old less intrusive UI but after a few minutes it will change to the new UI anways so this must be some kind of server side update. When deleting the app data again, it will switch back to the old UI, but only briefly. Any way to prevent this?
It is server side.
What is the device and android version? For android 9/10, disabling google play services will sometimes work (depending on the launcher version in rom), so long as it is only re-enabled for very brief periods when needed.
Android 11+ will likely have a launcher in rom that is ad-ready. So, if google play services is enabled for even a few seconds, the launcher will grab a series of ads that will remain persistent in perpetuity even if google play services is quickly disabled again.
Some apps require (or claim to require) that google play services be enabled.
You can't. All you can do is switch to a different launcher.