I keep seeing people say, “don’t connect your TV to the internet. Of course, this is good advice, and I follow it, but y’all know that pretty soon the TV won’t work unless it’s connected, right? I mean, that has to be coming.
Hopefully, the market will decide during transition. Keurig tried to use barcoded pods to ensure customers would exclusively purchase first-party coffee. Those coffee makers stopped selling and Nespresso had a market boom. Keurig returned to producing the non-barcoded machines a year later.
My TCL did this like 4 years ago. I went to sell it so I updated it, factory reset it... and it literally wouldn't get past the setup until it had connectivity. I didn't fight with it though. I just powered it off and handed it too a buyer who probably didn't think twice about it.
My router blocks any port 53 traffic out that isn't using the pihole then forwards it to the pihole. That way hard coded shit like IoT devices etc are all forced to use the pihole.