Yes. This was the only TV device on L. It was already 2 years old at this point, which for pure Android TV would not be allowed by Google. Since this was an AOSP device, the operator could stay on an older version.

Quick simple question for you. What does the TV testing landscape look like at a Netflix? Is it hundreds of various TVs in a room on a variety of networks or am I imagining too much here?

TV and set top box testing is shared between our partners (manufacturers and operators) and Netflix. Our partners must run our test suite before submitting for certification. We don't have all the devices under active testing all the time, but almost all of the devices have been tested at Netflix at some point. Most operator devices require VPNs to the operator network to function.

So yes, hundreds of devices on a variety of networks, but at any given moment most of the devices are in storage.