> Unfortunately, if you're in the market for a real high-end TV, you often don't have another option
What about Sony?
What about Sony?
Plus, doesn't Android TV have ads anyway? I haven't used it extensively but a quick search seems to suggest it does.
I haven't figured out how to roll the firmware back, but I have blocked basically all of the domains it accesses with pihole, and after a cache clear, it only displays default messages imploring the user to check out youtube and other google products. It's inoffensive enough that I haven't continued exerting effort to quash them.