alt Hacker NewsVote with your wallet though. If the price is not an issue (like the OP seems to be saying "I don’t mind paying a premium"), then there's no point in encouraging these kind of practices, even if they're pretty common for these kind of device.
Unfortunately though I think you are right and the best thing to do is just get one that has the specs you want never connect it to the internet and just get a companion device for the connected stuff like a Shield Pro (aging device but I did not catch up to what was the cool new things for those)
This is kind of an annoying platitude until you provide some vote that's worth casting. Who do you think we can buy from for a high quality, modern, privacy-oriented TV if you're so confident that it's just a matter of voting with your wallet rather than buying the device that lets you do what you want to with a bit of finagling?