That's the point - a TV remote should have 2 buttons at most - input select and on/off. And that's if selecting an input doesn't turn it on and selecting "off" from the input list doesn't turn it off. Or none, if it turns on or off according to the presence or absence of signals in its selected input.

The set-top-box remote, OTOH, could be no more complex than an Apple remote - menu/back, play/select/pause, directions.

One day I'll try tearing out every button off my TV remote and leave just the power and input buttons. Should be an interesting experiment.