The marketing shit getting people to buy 4K TVs when a 20 year old person struggles to see the difference from the other end of the room is literally producing unnecessary technology when the old stuff was just fine.
Add on artificial software breakage and it becomes even more extreme.
The vast majority of people buy the shit because it's pushed on them. My grandmother doesn't bloody need 4K.
I do dislike smart TVs however. Very thankful my dumb Samsung has lasted about 10 years and still going strong. Are there any dumb TVs left to buy?
Has never been updated but it's airgapped so who cares.
Of course if it gets on some open WiFi or has a sim card in it I'm knackered. Doh. Should probably crack it open and remove the antenna.
So yes, I would remove the antenna.
Someone somewhere probably thought, "Hey, let's help out our customers that may be too lazy or not smart enough to figure out how to connect, and do it automatically for them!"
People who remove antennae from their devices are doing so because the law is cold comfort after the fact. This is like telling a farmer they don't need guns because 911 will be there quickly enough. Nope.
It also seems unlikely that connecting to an unsecured access point can be said to be "unauthorized access". That would make like, free wifi essentially anywhere (hotels, fast food places, airports, coffee shops, libraries) illegal to access unless you like, asked someone first. It's in direct contrast with how probably 99% of people use WiFi.
Maybe you're talking about captive portals. Not all free wifi even has terms.
Laws don't stop crimes, they just allow crimes to be prosecuted.
(Otherwise there would be no more murders, drunk drivers, etc.)
Edit: just realized you meant the wifi antenna.