Which is precisely why the death of good dumb TVs are the biggest tragedy of all of this.

I don’t WANT my TV to do the job of a computer. I want it to display whatever it is that the computer it is attached to is sending out via HDMI (I’d rather have DisplayPort but that’s another battle entirely).

I detest the idea of Smart TVs and it irks me to hell and back that they are the standard now. I just want TVs to be TVs, not entertainment centres.

I can theoretically really get behind the idea of avoiding the need for a dongle, and I'd love a TV that's usable without one. Personally I'm about 90% there, as the brand I've been using for the past few years is actually quite usable, and my dongle is seeing less and less use.

But practically, it seems like the economic reality means these systems will always be stacked against consumers. Nobody cares enough about an open ecosystem when making the purchase decision if it means a difference of more than a few dollars, so we end up with streaming service logos on the remote, exclusivity deals with a given TV brand etc.