If these two options aren't viable you can just not connect your TV to the internet, so updates and ads cannot be pushed to make it worse. Thank you for this thread. My frustration is having to navigate a bloated menu just to get into a source. On old TVs you just pressed a button on a remote.

There are options for buying a big screen without "smart features", you can buy a computer monitor in 4K res that has a big display but that gets expensive fast. There are also commercial displays, which it's becoming harder to find one without smart features, the ones that do have minimal apps tho