The one unit you buy is an insignificant drop in the bucket for them, and getting their actually good underlying hardware and display firmware is much more valuable for you in comparison.
reply> sold units' is still a metric they'll use to positively enforce their strategies
replyExactly, if we want change the sales numbers have to go down. That means don't by LG, Samsung and who have you, it also means telling friends and family to go buy something else... but what?
The manufacturer will price in the value of ads and the such. So if you never connect it to WiFi, you get a good deal on the hardware. The same is true if you buy a tv and connect it to a traditional antenna (all tv’s in America are required by law to support this). You can always take it back if the firmware is not the right version to root.
replyVote with your wallet though. If the price is not an issue (like the OP seems to be saying "I don’t mind paying a premium"), then there's no point in encouraging these kind of practices, even if they're pretty common for these kind of device.
replyUnfortunately though I think you are right and the best thing to do is just get one that has the specs you want never connect it to the internet and just get a companion device for the connected stuff like a Shield Pro (aging device but I did not catch up to what was the cool new things for those)
This is kind of an annoying platitude until you provide some vote that's worth casting. Who do you think we can buy from for a high quality, modern, privacy-oriented TV if you're so confident that it's just a matter of voting with your wallet rather than buying the device that lets you do what you want to with a bit of finagling?
replyIt could be a loss leader where they make all their money with ads and spyware. I don't know if that's the case, but if it is, they'd lose money from the purchase and never make it back.
replyA lot of people didn't know and already own this stuff. We can always buy second hand.
replyYeah, step 1, buy a TV with this firmware version... As if they told you in the store before you purchase it.
replyMostly had success by buying it second hand and checking the firmware version
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