We've had this with TVs for like 3 years now... though when they do terrible things, they don't turn off a home's heat or start fires, usually.
A return to dumb TVs would be great. Would gladly pay a premium to have a TV that's just a high quality panel and barely anything else.
What's the problem with having a smart TV but simply never using the smart functions? Mine works perfectly, once in a quarter shows some pup-up that I dismiss and that's it.
BTW I needed to connect it to local network because the remote has no button for changing brightness, so I do that from my PC.
often they have cellular chips and may simply be privacy pests.
I’ve heard this but I’ve never actually heard of any popular brand of TV that integrates cellular. I keep my LG and Sony TVs off the network and I’m 99.9% sure they have no way of accessing the Internet.