The rumor mill is full of $hit. Whatever you’ve heard, it has come from people who have zero clue about the Apple TV. Apple can sometimes go 3 or 4 years before updating their Apple TV device. The current generation is barely 1 year old.
Also, Apple does not use hardware specific to the Apple TV. This current generation is using the A15 Bionic “system on a chip”. That’s the same SOC used for the iPhone 13 lineup. The only option is to start selling Apple TVs with the newer A16 or A17, which would push the price sky high. And for what? The A15 is an incredibly powerful SOC as it is, and there are zero games that even come close to pushing the hardware. Apple is slowly starting to build up the business relationships within the game development community for MacOS, so eventually that will trickle down to the Apple TV, but that will take years.
So, to sum it up; you have a very powerful SOC already. The only viable hardware upgrades are the A16 and A17 SOCs, and those would push the price past the PS5. The game development ecosystem for these devices is basically in its infancy, so the likelihood of a game developer taking advantage of what the A15 offers is non-existent.
So, peel off the plastic wrap, plug in that Apple TV and enjoy it for what it is; a really great streaming device. And, for those rumor sources; delete them, the people speculating are clearly full of shit.
Why would Apple give away their top chip in a $150 streaming device. That would be insanely stupid. Keep the latest gen chips in the highest margin devices. Your idea makes zero business sense.