Been a looooong time since research AVRs.
Notice many have various HDMI slots DVD, Games, Blue-Ray, Media, .....
Why?

I would expect these all get plugged into my TV then the Fiber Optic cable from the TV goes to the AVR for the sound.

What is the advantage of connecting to the AVR first then the TV as opposed to connecting directly to the TV then use the fiber optics to the AVR????

i plug all those into the AVR, the one cable to the TV for video only.

all the switching is then done via the AVR

eta: i like the ability to switch inputs with the big knob on the avr vs hunting for the remote. also don't use any of the smart tv features  (because I can't find the remote)

Usually a better solution to have all components run direct to your receiver, then one single HDMI carries the signal to the tv/projector. Modern HDMI will allow 2 way traffic, so audio from smart tv apps is passed back to the receiver.

7 or 8 years ago there was a specific model of Samsung TV that would pass through multi-channel audio from the HDMI ports to the optical output port.  No other Samsungs did this.  No other brands do this.  The ONLY way to get surround sound from your Roku, Firestick, Blu-ray player, game system, etc is to connect it to your receiver first and then from the receiver to the TV.

If you use the ATSC tuner of your TV or the internal streaming apps, then you can use eARC to send audio over the HDMI cable to your receiver (assuming your receiver also supports eARC).

The FO from TV to AVR is the method I use when I setup systems for my parents. It's more user friendly, as you control everything from the TV remote alone.

The advantage of letting the AVR handle input switching is, the AVR likely has a lot more audio codec processing than your TV, and passing the signal from UHD blu ray player, to TV, to FO on AVR, you'll lose access to some of the audio codecs.