This type of expectation is why I've always gravitated towards Roku sticks.
They're cheap, really well designed, centrally controlled on your account and you avoid any need to over-invest in specific TV vendors to have the same experience across the board.
And it can't do anything that the HDMI port can't do.
There's a part of me that wonders if this wasn't by necessity.
I went into Best Buy just before Christmas and they had Google TVs and Amazon TVs everywhere, prominently displayed and fully stocked. They only had 2-3 little Roku TV's hidden in the back corner that I had to ask somebody to even find.
If I go into Sam's Club or Walmart, I can find Roku everywhere with great options.
It made me wonder if the other vendors were trying to push Roku out and because of that they were forced into a deal with Walmart to remain viable.
You have gravitated toward Roku even though the CEO outright admitted in a podcast interview (referenced in the article) that Roku is an advertising company not a hardware company?
You see those four hard coded buttons on your Roku remote that are shortcuts to streaming services? They went to the highest bidder. You see that non removable banner ad on the right side of your Home Screen? You see the advertisement for the Game of Thrones prequel right in your menu?
Roku is the worse offender. Yes we have multiple Roku TVs and I recommend them to almost anyone because they are cheap, Roku has the best SmartTV operating system, support for every streaming service comes to it first, and it has a long history of updating its software. But, the two TVs I use most frequently also have AppleTV 4Ks attached.
I also take a Roku stick when I’m traveling because it works with captive networks that require a login. With the AppleTV I would have to configure a travel router.
Copying from another comment, in case you didn't see:
With tvOS 15.4, "Captive Wi-Fi network support on tvOS allows you to use your iPhone or iPad to connect your Apple TV to networks that need additional sign-in steps, like at hotels or dorms."
Whoops I think my statement above wasn't specific enough. Roku promises official support in 18 countries across America and Europe [1], but I'm in Asia.
yeah. I've made the 'not going to do nothing but also not going to dedicate my life to self-hosting everything' choice: I bought a dumb spectre generic tv, then hooked up a roku stick, and am letting the pihole catch whatever it can, and hoping for the best from there.
So far, the banner ads in roku stay away, so it probably works well enough?
They're cheap, really well designed, centrally controlled on your account and you avoid any need to over-invest in specific TV vendors to have the same experience across the board.
And it can't do anything that the HDMI port can't do.