Less buggy in my experience. My Sony’s software is pretty buggy, and the experience is overall poorer than my previous setup of dumb + chromecast. Plugging a chromecast is doable of course but it feels silly since I can cast directly to the TV. Google now sells a stick with a full blown android tv implementation and I’m sure it’s much better than what manufacturers are putting on their TVs.

Also, software ages much more poorly than screens. TV have a useable life of more than 10 years. So the smart features will be broken long before the TV. On a dumb tv you can upgrade the stick for 50$. Not so long ago I was using an ancient plasma TV just fine with a chromecast.

To me the real deal is still dumb tv + Linux media pc. If freedom and privacy is important to you then you have full control over that.

I think the idea is that you don't use a stick but instead some kind of open source content manager like kodi.

Of course I do. I bought it for $150 on Black Friday in 2016, not realizing that I would never have a chance to buy one again. I refuse to upgrade. I don't use a stick or anything either, I just plug in my laptop with HDMI.

If you use an apple tv, then all you want of your tv is to be a dumb hdmi display