It’s wild just how much they’re trying to shove AI down our throats.

Who’s going to step up and start creating a “dumb” version of absolutely everything? One brand dedicated to just making the thing do the thing it absolutely must do and nothing else.

Would be great but the manufacturer would be at a disadvantage because that bundled bullshit effectively subsidizes the device. So you’d have to either raise prices or accept a lower profit margin. Due to the high barrier of entry (e.g. because of patents) it’s unlikely that a privately owned company can make a big market entry, especially across countries. And a public company will be forced by the shareholders to maximize profit so either you bundle crapware or they fire you as CEO. Of course if you look outside the TV maker, such devices already exist. High-quality digital signage devices can easily be had – for about three times the price of an equivalently-sized TV.

Wonder if avoiding the HDMI forum and only having open source ports like DP would reduce cost.

It might but most devices only use HDMI. DP is pretty much only used by PCs. Maybe the GPMI consortium decides to make their standard open; that might help. But I don’t see DP catching up to HDMI; HDMI is too entrenched.