You're assuming a level of technical skill on the side of TV manufacturers that it almost sounds like a joke to me.

In any case, all you need is one model with a decent screen and broken certificate pinning and I'm good for the 3-5 years that the TV will last.

And until then, I'd assume that Nvidia sees the market demand for big TV-like PC screens and outcompetes the TV manufacturers.

so...

1. Order TV.

2. test if it works without agreeing to anything and without internet.

3. return if that's not the case.

I have yet to accept EULA on samsung on anything and it works...

Right now the ACR is troubling. Telling a remote server what you're watching... Only solution I found - not connected + hdmi to Linux box I control.

As an older comment mention, they can easily add an delay that makes it work without an connection only for the duration in which an return is possible.

It is very hard to win against hostile design.

I agree with you it's hard to win against hostile design but there are options for now.

If it stops working after return period I call under warranty that it stopped working (2 years), they are forced to fix the issue.

Explain the issue, explain you cannot connect to the internet.

If it doesn't work, forward the whole info to the customer protection bureau if you're in the EU.

Edit: I will test this out by setting a date far in the future when I buy new equipment (will also hopefully cause SSL failures due to expired certificates internally in the firmware)

This would be a known defect under EU warranty law, which means once it kicks in, you can get a full refund if you want to.

They can try and fix it 3 times then you get your money back.

That would easily cause lawsuits as it is clear that the other party is doing that solely to cheat against law.