I just use my appleTV 4K with my samsung tv disconnected from the internet

Opnsense, pfsense, adguard home, pi-hole. Look into them, start caring about your privacy. Not because you have nothing to hide, but because one day your data might be used against you.

A simple first step to helping oneself learn better ways to deal with this problem is to setup NextDNS on your router and use their Roku or similar content filters.

We need to have a community wiki with TVs where the WiFi chip can be reliably desoldered

The worrying part:

Most TVs on the market today come with a technology called automatic content recognition (ACR) built in. This is basically Shazam for TV — Shazam itself helped popularize the tech — and gives smart TV platforms the ability to monitor what you’re watching by either taking screenshots or capturing audio snippets while you’re watching.

The author then just gives up and says “maybe targeted adverts aren’t so bad”, concluding that the only way to avoid them is to buy an older TV. Fuck that! Either never connect it to the internet and plug in a more trusted devices, or go for a deep dive down the pihole.