And now even if you do get a dumb tv and connect a new Chromecast (4k) to it you STILL get ads. You even get ads for services you already subscribe to, asking you to subscribe to a higher tier. And you also get the dark pattern of the down button on the remote navigating upwards the first time you press it... So it highlights the giant advertisement first.
Last year, the NVIDIA Shield TV, a $200 device if you get the Pro version, received an update to Android TV that forced a new UI for the homescreen that injects ads from a variety of premium streaming services [1]. There is no easy way to disable it as far as I know other than installing a custom launcher such as FLauncher [2]. The cancers of modern day advertising cannot be understated.
Good to know! I was looking into getting one to replace my Chromecast. If I have to babysit a device's software I might as well just build the hardware myself, too! Even more pain in doing that, of course, but at least it's self inflicted.
I'm close to building my own TV DIYPerks style.