I went through this rigamorole last month when I inherited my dad's old PW2. In my case, not blacklisted, and like to root/jailbreak/cfw all the things THEN find out what I'm going to do with them. I have some old mobis I decrypted forever ago, and so beyond those I have no need for the Amazon Store, but wished to mess with collections (though I much prefer KOReader almost all the time), anyways, here's 2 ways you can accomplish collections on your device
without having to use Calibre:
1.) Install the usual stuff like KUAL/Helper/MR package installer, then install python 2.*, because 3 is for screensavers or something. Then install librarian sync. THEN you plug the kindle into your PC and create sub-folders in your documents folder. documents/docs....documents/non-fiction...documents/weeb stuff etc. Put all your books into those folders. Reboot device for fun. NOTE: Calibre is useful for converting whatever you like into Mobi or whatever format the default Kindle reader can use, btw, you don't have to wonk out on tags and 'proper metadata' like everyone else (ahem). Once done, open librarian sync, and select 'rebuild collections (from folders). Reboot and you should see collections in the relevant section.
2.) There's a really cool shell script made by a really clever person that can write a registration file to your device, which subsequently unlocks collections ability. I had limited success with it; it worked, but my device phoned home and the registration was overwritten by factory defaults because Bezos is a spiteful guy and he's always watching (kidding, it leaves a file that says something I forget, and looked up why and it said they really don't care). If I had to guess, firewalling such comms may prevent it from reverting? Option 1 above should make this a last resort only.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...87&postcount=3