I think the smart component and whatever data mining and propaganda it contains - or whatever additional digital purchases they expect the customers to make during the lifetime of it - are subsidizing that thing.
Bingo. Netflix and Disney pay TV makers kickbacks to preinstall their apps in expectation of future subscription revenue. Another kickback is the requirement that subscription apps process payments through the Internet-connected TV OS publisher's payment processor, at a substantially higher rake than the 3% of PayPal or Stripe. A third is the requirement that subscription apps provide some percent of ad inventory on ad-supported apps to the OS publisher at no charge, which I'm pretty sure is why the ad-supported tier of Disney+ is unavailable on Roku TV.
Remember all events that happened there while the TV was off. Didn't everyone's eyes constantly flicked to and from that screen, because it was the most prominent thing in the room? And constantly suggesting itself to be turned on? Or was it on all the time anyway, and everyone's conversation was against, instead or towards whatever happened on the screen?
In cases I've seen, the larger TV replaced a smaller TV below a wall of framed photos of family members.
So what size screen should people be buying instead? Should people choose their furniture by how easy it is to move across the floor to reconfigure a room between normal use and movie night?