Before we start talking about smart TV technology, let's take a short trip down memory lane and recall what television was like without it: it's the early 2000s, your favorite show is on, the action builds to a climax, you're on the edge of your seat.... and there it is, the dreaded commercial break.
You can still buy a 4k “dumb” TV from Sceptre. I’ve been pretty happy with mine.
This is similar to what I do, use a standard lcd tv, then I use it as monitor to make it ‘smart’. Can confirm, works great.
I remember when smart TVs were first advertised, people were afraid something like that please drink can to continue green text would come to life. My mom’s version was having to dance to an ad to keep watching her telenovella and the tv never registering it.
Sadly dumb TVs by Sceptre are not available all over the world. In (northern) Europe there’s SwedX who are doing digital signage solutions. I guess there’s a few other manufacturers doing the same, but they often lack image quality features (like FALD, HDR, …) higher priced smart TVs have. This is how they get you :/