Yeah… fair enough. I’m honestly a noob when it comes to TV/Audio equipment so it doesn’t surprise me that I picked one of the worst brands out of the bunch… hah!

I've regretted nearly every Samsung device I've ever purchased. The only one I've ever been pleased with were the Galaxy Buds Pro (gen 1). I bought the gen 2s after I thought I lost my first pair but found them a month later. Those gen 2 buds have always been flakey. They take a few extra seconds longer to connect, sometimes one doesn't connect until I dock it and try again or if it does connect, it has staticy or garbled audio on just one bud. I also have an awful time getting them to switch to other devices. Connecting them to my steam deck requires telling the deck to forget them and then re-pair. Meanwhile, the gen 1 buds just work. Battery life is not great on them anymore but they last long enough for my typical daily use.

I actually recall seeing an option on my TV to set up the Samsung remote as a ‘universal’ controller. I haven’t had the need to do so because I have a Philips Sync Box that handles HDMI-CEC for me (So I can basically use the TV’s controller on the devices connected to the Sync Box).

Oddly enough (At least in my model) the ‘trigger’ to setup the universal remote is within the ‘input sources’ menu?

Exactly. I in part, chose this setup to avoid running cables; I figured that technology has come a long way… but here we are unfortunately.