Can't you just yank the internet connection afterwards?

I did a firmware upgrade and just disconnected from the internet right after. I also don't use the built in apps, because let's be honest, compared to an AppleTV, all SmartTV apps are basically garbage. I understand that the AppleTV is somewhat expensive, but it's my baseline for the quality I'd expect from a SmartTV.

Netflix on the AppleTV, starts instantly, and you're browsing the content endlessly after 20 sec. Start Netflix on the TV it self, that will take a few minutes.

Yeah, I did. and at least it is an Ad-free TV.

On mine I was able to do an offline firmware update by loading the new firmware onto USB flash drive. Was hoping the new firmware would fix a bug in the built-in video player, but it didn't.

return it?

Chanced are, they would have "fixed" it for me. By accepting ALL EULA's. iirc, I could accept half before updating.

Edit: also, it was a gift.