The problem is any TV is smart-free if you don’t give it the WiFi password (as article points out), so I’m not sure why’d I pay more for something that would be harder to sell second hand later on?
Personally my TV is offline with an AppleTV for streaming.
The sales pitch can’t be “sure that TV is the same as ours for double the price, but wait until nexts years model!”
Well, better reason to buy the cheap one today.