Yes, this is definitely something mining watch associations try to explain: batteries have a huge environmental cost because of the impact of the mining industry required to produce said batteries.
It's the same with electric cars: no they are not better for the environment.
Another linked cost is the infrastructure required to support these cars/charging vehicles (think the charging stations). Because of the required amount of copper that is involved.
I've tried Kodi on librelec, the old Xbox launcher. It has an app called kodi remote: your phone is the remote.
Currently I'm using an old 2013 laptop with Debian and xfce. I've installed KDE connect on it, and it also has an app KDE connect that turns your phone into the remote.
The main advantage of the remote on your phone is you can type text, copy/paste URLs, passwords and whatnot