I watch iptv with Kodi and it's pretty solid.

But I went through the same thing with iptv-org. It seems many of the listed channels are largely dead. I manually scrubbed the english list by checking the channels but it was pretty brutal. I think like 200-400 channels were working out of 2000+.

There are also online m3u checkers if you search like "m3u checker". I've used some web-based apps. They're somewhat slow but ok. There's also an m3u checker that you can install locally. I haven't tried it yet but I'm wondering if it might be faster.

I try not to bother with obviously pirated channels because they usually go down pretty quick. I'm much more interested in legit channels that will stay up.

Lastly I also have all the Pluto channels with EPG. I used this app for the channels and EPG.

I also wrote some scripts to download/merge channels and EPGs. TBH it's kind of a PITA but it's like a hobby.

(edit: One last thing... I noticed that some channels worked with VLC but not Kodi. I had to adjust some settings in Kodi to make them work. In particular I had to change my user agent to OKHTTP for Pluto channels.)