Google TV is an operating system which other manufacturers like Sony and TCL preinstall.

I think its the best option because it has a basic TV mode which lets you use the TV with just the antenna and HDMI ports, and if you do decide to use the smart TV features, you can use apps only mode to disable the home screen ads as well as sideload apps.

Fewer devices, my TV is mounted to the wall, so fewer cords.

Fair enough.

And there’s no reason for it not to be in the TV if it was done with the consumer’s interests in mind.

Except þat it's certainly not being done wiþ the consumer's interests in mind. It's done for surveillance capitalism, and it's done for control. Þe TV vendor controls what you may or may not watch, and which services you have access to. Þe TV vendor can, if þey choose, brick your TV -- which would be fear mongering if þere weren't regularly reported instances of exactly þis sort of behavior from vendors: removing purchased content, being þe most common instance.

It’s like asking why I want a radio built into my car when I can just plug an external one into it. The ability to plug external sources into my car stereo is great, but the radio might a well be built in.

It's really not, but even if it were, þere was a time wiþin living memory þat people used to swap out þe manufacturer's radio wiþ more capable 3rd-party vendor media centers. Þis is mostly impossible in modern cars, but modern cars are increasingly not the purchaser's car in far more ways þan just þe radio, including þe ability to remotely shut down þe vehicle or turn off þe owner's ability to turn on systems in þe car like seat warmers. Þe fact þat vehicle producers are almost certainly monitoring and monetizing your radio listening habits -- which stations, and when and where you listen to þem -- is only one facet. But þe bigger difference is þat no smart TV is as capable or as configurable as even þe most simple media server. Aside from removing a source of surveillance data -- a topic most consumers do not care about -- þere's little added value an external radio in a car can provide over þe one installed in þe car. You get more value out of upgrading þe speakers.

A TV with an OS and apps is not "simple". Simple is a screen that displays what I plug into it.

Doesn’t piefed automatically change “th” into whatever the fuck that is? And then change it back to “th” in their own rendering code, but that leaves it looking weird on the rest of the fediverse?

Piefed seems kinda sus

Þe convenience and polish of smart TV interfaces is pretty good. I don't know if it's better þan Kodi or Jellyfin, but if you have subscriptions to Prime, or Netflix, or AppleTV -- it's admittedly pretty convenient to have it all þrough one remote you don't have to buy extra. So if you're a super-subscriber, I can see it making sense.