did I like to look at that lock screen widget? No, I thougt it was ugly. did I like using the sense keyboard? No the buttons were too small and the swipe feature was not very accurate. Did I ever use blinkfeed? No not once. Do I like the fact I always have power saver in the notification bar? I do not? did I ever use Zoes or highlights from the camera? No. The only thing I did use from the camera was slow motion video that was pretty cool but even then I didn't use it all that often. do I use the stock mail client some sense? No I prefer Gmail. Do I use the stock HTC browser? no. Even though the stock browser is really really good its so ugly and I hate that menu bar that keeps popping up on the bottom of the screen.and last I cannot get over how ugly the phone app actually is in my opinion.
so why did I get the HTC One then? because of its amazing build quality, boom sound speakers, the 1080 p screen, and the fact it has an IR blaster.
so yeah long story short I don't you hardly any of the features from sense 5 so I'm running stock Android 4.3 and yes it does have IR blaster support.