Why is this so hard? - because it is hard! if it was easy then everyone would be doing it. It’s ok to struggle, you can do this! Everything will be alright and if you do fail, you will be able to recover and learn from what didn’t go right so next time you will be successful.
Have you tried getting just one link to work? Troubleshooting is best when you start with a small problem and work up to more complexity. Narrow down what the issue is. You dumped a ton of data and text in your post. I don’t have a page of bookmarks in my dashboard. I tried a link at one point and never got it to work. I assumed at the time it had to do with http vs https but just decided I don’t need that link in my HA dashboard. Good luck to you.
Plain and simple there isn’t a better Android option than the shield yet. I have the 2017 pro. I put the projectivty launcher on it and haven’t looked back .