How do I turn off the customized Xiaomi menu on the Mi Box? The Xiaomi Mi Box has a pretty stock AndroidTV experience, except they have a custom section with all their recommended apps. How can I remove these customized apps from the home screen?
You can go to Settings -> Apps, then go to the very end of the "System Apps" row, then disable XiamioLeanbackCustomizer. 

You then need to reboot the device (or force quit each app) so that the applications populating the recommendations menu can reload.