Monitors should never be "smart". They have exactly one purpose and that is to display the video signal connected to them. If it starts displaying ads on top of that video signal, then it's unable to serve it's one purpose and it belongs in the dumpster.

Stage 1: You pay for it, it is the product

Stage 2: It is free, you are the product (enshittification)

Stage 3: You pay for it, you are the product (late-stage enshittification)

Smart monitors are for dumb people.

Does this affect people on modern platforms (Mac/Linux) or just Windows? This is the kind of thing that is making Windows get left behind.

I got a smart TV because the dumb ones were more expensive. But I'd never do that with a monitor. A monitor is not meant to be interacted with directly. Just display what the computer says to display. The computer is all that should be running software besides basic firmware for adjusting overall settings like brightness and contrast which computer OSes don't have enough information to do most of the time. But that's it.

I'm just imagining dealing with a fucking ad on my monitor when I'm trying to resolve a sev one outage.