It may sound like a folk tale but to me at least it doesn't seem like a dumb strategy: Lots of people won't connect the TV to their home WiFi either because the

It may sound like a folk tale but to me at least it doesn't seem like a dumb strategy: Lots of people won't connect the TV to their home WiFi either because they're concerned about data collection or just because they don't want to spend time and effort on it. Most would consent to the TV's terms of service though, especially if a considerable amount of features are locked in case you decline. So if the TV manufacturer can sell its customers' viewership data for more than the cost of the LTE connection on average then there's a clear incentive to do it. Apart from that I'd always assume the worst case when it comes to digital self-defense.