Sceptre makes a 75” 4K dumb display that Walmart sells for a little under $600.

Sceptre 75" Class 4K UHD LED TV HDR U750CV-U

The Samsung tries to “identify” what’s on an hdmi input before it will connect. It seems to call out to the internet to do that because it takes forever to fail and show you the display anyway when it’s not connected to the internet. Even when it is connected, it takes a stupidly long time to switch to a new input. I super hate it and will never buy another samsung tv.

I guess the lg needs to boot tizen before it works, because I see the logo briefly but then it goes directly to the last used input with no other bullshit, so it’s fine with me.

I love how literally nobody is answering your actual question.

I agree that this is problematic and we need TV reviews to include at least some of the information you cite.

If it helps, I have an LG smart TV. It complains if you don’t let it access the internet at setup, but if you connect it once and let it do its initial patching, you can decline all agreements and not get nagged until it tries to update again. To keep it from further updates, you can disconnect it from wifi and it doesn’t seem to try to reconnect. I can’t speak to public wifi because there aren’t any open access points near my TV.

In contrast, I have a samsung TV that loses its mind if it can’t connect to the internet and becomes basically useless for all the nagging.

Paprika 3 recipe manager does that too, plus it adds it to a local database, without any AI bullshit or HP account.

You can debloat an NVIDIA shield android tv box, replace the default launcher, then install whatever else you want. It’s probably not perfect but it’s pretty darn good. That’s what I use and it can be updated without losing any of my customization.

It depends a LOT on where you are. In the USA, Canada, and (I think) Mexico, such a thing is not possible, at least in any way that the services you mentioned will care.

It might be possible in places where phone numbers don’t have a fixed length, like (again, I think) Germany.

Wow, a whole $1 million. They’ll notice that for like seven seconds.