For laptops and smartphones, sure being stolen a common risk, and that kind of functionality grants the end-user some protection, and perhaps a chance to recover the good.
For TVs and motherboards, GPUs, printers, etc it's basically superfluous DRM that typically only serves the manufacturer.
Overall Smart TVs have been the polar opposite of user-respecting technology.
Once you purchase the product legitimately, you now have legal protection so that the OEM may not lock you out. Products should respect the owner. Stolen products are still owned by the OEM and not the person physically holding the product.
But the reality is that it never will activate and you wont ever know about it so it can't possibly impact your life and there are appropriate safe guards against misuse. It's about as useful as asking why you are forced to use a specific brand of flash chip on the image processing board.
And I'm not against this either. The law can provide a strong set of rights for actual owners, but if your product is stolen, you have no rights over it.