That’s an unfortunate shortcoming of our current displays and current standards.

The standards are ambitious and allow for dynamic ranges well beyond what our hardware is currently capable of. Even our most expensive displays can’t do the full range of our standards. So we play games with mapping of the theoretical range to our comparatively dim displays. Even after doing that, many people still find the image annoyingly dark.

You may find that you enjoy watching HDR content converted to SDR. It will be brighter and easier to see, though less accurate.

HDR displays are getting brighter each year. But for the foreseeable future, HDR content will still appear too dim for some people. There’s no way around that other than brighter displays or a standards/usage change by the industry.

Personally, I think HDR could have been handled better by everyone. Someday, our current content mastering will display beautifully. It just doesn’t quite yet.

YouTube

Just about any powered pair of speakers will sound better than homepods or a soundbar. You could get a cheapo pair or something like SVS wireless prime or Kanto TUK. This would also use of a subwoofer if you should ever want one again.

Don’t wait on a more powerful AppleTV. There’s no point. They’re already overpowered and seldom updated. There aren’t games pushing the limit.

TV built-in speakers are crap and the mini homepods are only slightly better. Just about any stereo pair or 2.1 system will sound infinitely better.