I’m so glad to hear this experience. It permanently answers the question of whether it’s worth experimenting to get ARC!
It is definitely worth it for ARC for the price especially if one has never had room eq for two channel listening. There is nothing even close.
But it does have some quirks.
I don't think it is that bad for the price if you only use the optical in and optical out.
Used as a streaming device from DTS Play-fi, the phone/tablet client is the worst part. But if you just listen to one source through it (don't need to use the UI for selecting songs, etc) and put it in a preset, it becomes a non-issue. If you use the optical out, then you can leave it at a fixed volume and use the downstream DAC/pre-amp to control volume.
The other issue is the WiFi connectivity. It can be a bit flaky depending on your WifFi router (many devices including Apple devices can be flaky that way). I found it much more stable if I didn't have a hidden SSID (created a separate isolated network for this as I do with all IoT devies for security) and use a lower speed band without getting fancy with router settings for performance. This is not a high-bandwidth hog. I haven't had problems since then.
The power button is a bit flaky and refuses to come on if I totally turn it off until I press a couple of times. This is solved by never turning it off (it has a standby mode) or using an external power switch.
I am also using it as a roomEQ box for a PC source via optical in and this works fine except for the sample rate change. The PC has to up-sample and output at 48khz, otherwise the box keeps changing to 48khz in between songs and back to 44.1 for the content which creates a pause and a burst of noise at incorrect sample rate before it corrects.
YMMV may vary on whether the above is worth the hassle. But if it works with the above constraints, I don't think there is anything anywhere close to this price range to get a well-resepcted room EQ for 2-channel listening.