I'll counter your anecdote with mine, that my dad finds his Samsung "smart" TV too confusing to use (without even caring about things like tracking or ads), yet

I'll counter your anecdote with mine, that my dad finds his Samsung "smart" TV too confusing to use (without even caring about things like tracking or ads), yet he uses his Virgin Media (UK Tivo-based box) and my Apple TV boxes just fine. Personally I dislike Samsung TV software for the same reasons as most of the others in this thread, and would rather have a dumb TV. But I do agree with your general point about usability, and would be very supportive of a TV that shipped with basic ability to enable apps such as YouTube, but that did nothing to force use of them on the user, nothing to promote content, nothing to track what people watch, etc.