These days I use an HDHomeRun Flex 4K. Four tuners, 4K ATSC support, clients for virtually all platforms (including Smart TVs) so you don't have to connect a proper "computer" to the TV or fumble with remotes, has cheap "bring your own storage" network DVR support, it's a real neat device for $200.
It picks up 82 OTA channels where I live. Just crazy how much content is on OTA TV these days.
Because that's usually what people really mean when they say that they need cable for sports. They want to watch some big game that ESPN paid big money for the broadcast rights like the college football national championship. Or they want to watch their local professional NBA or MLB team and the regional network paid big money for exclusive broadcast rights in the area so it's blacked out on League Pass (NBA) or MLB.tv
So many people complain about having to pay for cable. I watch all of my Sunday football for free OTA.
ESPN of course has monday night football and Amazon now has Thursday and you are right that there are thousands of other sports events on pay channels. But I am surprised at how many people in the reddit game threads don't realize that you can watch CBS, NBC, and Fox over the air for free.
There's lots of channels, but nothing to watch :P with cable, there'd be a lot more channels, and still, nothing to watch :)
Sports are actually one of the pros of cord-cutting in some scenarios, as you will generally get much higher quality streams OTA. But if there are black-out rules or you care about specific national/international teams then all of a sudden completely cut off. It all just depends on the specifics.