I doubt it's annoying on purpose to get more people on the phone. I could be wrong about that, but that's not usually the way Apple's particular kind of hubris tends to manifest. There's almost certainly people at the company -- and it only takes one or two in the right places -- who like the current UI for text selection, and would probably explain why they think so. Now, they may literally be the same people who think the Apple TV remote is good in the first place, so I want to make it clear I'm not saying they're right. :)

And, Apple should be better at UI design than this. They were once, and not that long ago, but I think the UI team they've had for the last, oh, let's say seven or eight years -- going back semi-arbitrarily to iOS 7, but steadily infecting all other platforms -- have prioritized aesthetics over usability.

I don't think it is on purpose to get people on their phone. Most people just don't use the keyboard much, I would guess. I never do, except for signing up for new apps.

So I would agree with their design decision: make an elegant remote, use voice dictation for search and the like, if you need a keyboard, use your iPhone, and if you are not happy with that, get a dedicated keyboard. If you are not happy with THAT, well ...

I am spending way more energy on this thread than is healthy :D

But I can understand where you're coming from, I am just very frustrated that this user-interface-design-genius trillion dollar company can not change the input mechanism of one of their most used product from the:

a b c d e [f] g h i j k etc... Backspace

model with only <-> movement and no way to make an input correction other than backspace, to something like:

  a b  c  d  Backspace
  e f [g] h  forward 
  i j  k  l  backward
  m n  o  p

Which is the way almost all other TV-centered apps I use function and works much better.

Yeah, I get your point now.