...what makes the frame rate thing especially weird is how many TVs ship with motion smoothing enabled by default, which looks so much worse than actual high frame rate content would.

I don't like it at all. But someone must, or the TV manufacturers wouldn't do it.

Part of me thinks that it's only the people who know what "frame rate" means who prefer low frame rates, and a majority of the general public actually prefers high frame rates but lacks the terminology or knowledge to express this desire.