What exactly do you mean by "couldn't live without a smart tv" ? I'd say most people would do fine with a regular TV, and then hooking up whatever video playing devices they choose. It's marketing that pushes them into the high-friction trap of an integrated device where they can only reduce surveillance by throwing away the whole TV.
Smart TVs are not made because consumers want them but because to add advertisements to smart apps is a new revenue stream for TV makers. One that continues after the TV has been sold.
I bought a commercial TV from Samsung because it had basically no smart capability (it has some very limited smart features but they are easily disabled and ignored). I wanted something that would just not get in the way and would let me boot right into my Apple TV. Maybe it is not the traditional "dumb" TV, but it was nice to not have a ton of pop-ups and ads on a TV I paid for.