I never wanted one because I was afraid that one or the other would break, then it would be half-useless.

My parents had one where the TV part stopped working, but the VCR still worked. It had video/audio out jacks so dad plugged it into their other TV, so they had a dead TV sitting next to their working TV for use as a VCR.

Smart TVs from at least the last 5 years have a similar problem. You update the software and they become excruciatingly slow, or you can't update the software and they gradually become useless.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

But I can replace an old Roku for $39.

They work exactly as intended, too bad that among the intended features there is also their planned obsolescence.

True, my old LG TV UI kept getting slower and slower with each update, finally I stopped applying updates and switched to a Roku.

Though the good thing is that I can't see the carcass of the old SmartTV laying around, the TV stays connected to the Roku so unless I accidentally hit the Channel up/down button and switch it to TV mode, I never see the LG SmartTV features.

I hit that point with my 5 year old Sony android TV. I just plugged in an Nvidia Shield TV device, though, and now it's buttery smooth again with nearly perfect integration.

They were mostly small TVs and not the highest quality. And separate VHS or DVD players had more features.

They were great for a child's bedroom or similar but a big screen with a VHS would just look sort of silly.

They were popular!

But there was also the tradition in higher end A/V equipment of selling components instead of complete systems so it was limited to the low end.

I think the issue with Smart TVs is that people became aware of the extent of the downsides only years after they became aware of the convenience.