You can do things like physically modifying your TV, or seeing if there are undocumented settings to disable things.

The smart here really isnt the issue.

And so your TV does need Internet access.

The same holds for many other devices, in different shapes. Sure, you can opt out of civilization completely to avoid all the side effects of late stage capitalism, but maybe it's worth applying a bit more nuanced thinking to find a balance that doesn't throw you back to the 1800s. (Unless you like the 1800s, in which case, enjoy)

We collected such minimal information. Basically only enough to allow for OTAs, functionality, and debugging. Thinking back, we could've collected so much more.

I remember when Alexa hit the market and we (as a company) thought there's NO WAY amazon was making any money on them.

Today... NO WAY. Along the way the value stopped being "This product is priced so we can make a profit" and became "The data we collect is more valuable than the sale".

You might say it's naive, but is it really naive to buy a TV and expect it to be a device to display audiovisual content and not a spyware/adware machine?

I feel like it's not the user's behavior that should be put into question here, but the borderline criminal behavior of the manufacturer.

A non-cohesive angry rant

If anything it's the opposite, as memory components become obscenely expensive.