I felt exactly the same as you. You have to ask for help, be patient, ask again if you don't understand and eventually you will overcome the problem. In the case of SMB shares, it was Microsoft that killed the anonymous and browse features when accessing shares. This was necessary for security though. If your hardware doesn't support the new SMB versions, you will have to bite the bullet and replace it or stay with older versions of Libreelec. As far as moving to another platform - good luck with that. They most likely will have the same issues.
Going to stay with 8.0.2 for now. When I have no choice but to update, I will try Merlin's firmware for my router if a new one hasn't been releaed by then. As far as other platforms go, android is still good to go.