First question:
If you "have placed all major publishers of operating systems for Internet-connected TVs "into a personal perpetual denylist"" and there are none left on the market, what are the options?
You might
- buy from a MINOR publisher of operating systems for Internet-connected TVs
- buy NO operating system for Internet-connected TVs, i.e. you buy no Internet-connected TV
- buy or combine two products for a viable alternative / substitute
For Internet-connected TVs, this is a very easy and straightforward process, because Internet-connected "smart" TVs are very high up Maslow's pyramid and most people can very likely do without them.
You could substitute that union with a combination of a) dumb display + b) smart net-connected box, which is also a lot more economical and ecological, if I might add, because a "dumb" display will be usable - and useful - for a a lot longer. We're talking about a decade of usability or more than the foreseeable technical obsolescence of the "smart" component. The "smart" component will likely be out of updates, outdated, underpowered or obsolete within 3-5 years. Bundling a cheap, rapidly aging component with a huge, expensive component that ages very slowly means creating one huge, expensive component that ages rapidly, multiplying e-waste and money wasted by orders of magnitude for a simple convenience of having 1 instead of 2 remotes. Only fools would do that, but here we are.
Second question:
"How to go forward without Google TV and Apple TV?"
No content on these TV services is worth your time, because the state of US media has deteriorated into an amalgamation of propaganda, insanity, stupidity, counterfactual ideology and the shallowest of shallow emotions. All watchable content that could ever be worth your time has already been made years ago and is available on streaming services and pirate sites. Or on physical media available for pennies second-hand, because Normie people throw out their discs and disc readers currently. New Content worth your time will only be made again after the crash, and Southern California tech will be the epicenter and reason for the crash, giving everyone a good chance that the tech available afterwards isn't as pozzed as theirs.
Next question:
"How does one select a full factory reset without clicking through the full-screen prompt to waive access to the court system?"
A) You disconnect the thing from all network connections and then click the prompt, so it will not get through
B) You write a legal document to the manufacturer stating that you were forced to click this prompt to clean the device of your personal data in order to get rid of it, making this "agreement" null and void, because it was done under duress.
C) You accept the prompt, waive your "legal rights", which you probably weren't willing to enforce in court anyway, and then get rid of this thing forever and move on with life.
D) You file a criminal complaint to whatever police or law enforcement branch has jurisdiction over this, under the same laws that prohibit the use of ransomware. Because what Roku did is the same as what ransomware does. Exactly the same. "Pay us / agree to us, or we release YOUR data and lock YOUR device from resale, recovering, whatever."
My money would be on option E) "all of the above".
Next question:
"How to sell the TV without the original box on second-hand marketplaces?"
Not having the original box means
a) procuring another TV-shipping box of the required size from a second-hand marketplace (people get rid of these boxes all the time and need them later; and others want to monetize the boxes stored in their attics for devices that have long died or been given away). Cost: 20 bucks and some time for shipping and searching. Not great, not terrible.
b) procuring a TV-shipping box from the nearest supermarket, who throw them out by the dozens every week.
c) selling it without a box for pickup only. Depending on the number of people living nearby, their wealth, car ownership rate, size of the item and affluency of the city, this can slightly - or hugely impact the final selling price.
A cardboard box is private property like everything else. Some people consider FunkoPop figures to be valuable, too, which I think are trash. But the owner decides what to do with their property, and when and what to discard. If your roommate is throwing out your property without your permission, your apartment sharing contract needs an addition or clarification. I'm serious. Sharing the apartment means having communal space that all roommates can use and agree to keep clear of (large) items (that other roommates don't want). If the box was stored there, the contract may give the other party the right to discard it. If it was stored in the private area of your apartment, or a designated storage area, or your shared app doesn't have a private area to store such things, then the contract is in fact, incomplete, as you share the apartment, not all of your stuff. And throwing out other people's stuff voids the agreement and / or makes the other side liable for compensation. Unless it's your SO, which also is a roommate, then you have little recourse and the box isn't worth it. Healthy boundaries are nice to have there, too, I might add.
Try buying a similar-sized TV box second hand, if you ask me.
Last question:
"How to sign up to use ChatGPT without an SMS-capable number?"
A) You select an anonymous SMS provider.
B) You acquire a burner SIM card that isn't associated with your identity (depending on the jurisdiction you're in this is either easy or illegal, YMMV)
C) You open up to the fact that you cannot beat all the players in every game all the time and accept the terms and conditions of some players, so you can continue to function legally, physically, in a suboptimal world.
D) You don't use ChatGPT, but another AI, which you might already have an account for, maybe Bing or Gemini, so at least you don't increase your exposure to surveillance bots.
E) You write the listing for the item yourself, copy & pasting & rewording the manufacturer's marketing texts.
I recommend you write the listing yourself, unless your spelling is bad. Don't be too verbose, because every sentences increases your liability if the thing doesn't perform later. If Roku becomes a pariah through these tactics, your resale value might be far too low, but such is life. Notice how all tech made / designed / developed in USA, or at least California, is like this and avoid it where you can. Never buy, download, use, accept any California tech products unless you absolutely have to. I'm serious. I know that it is unfeasible to avoid Google AND Apple AND Microsoft, but please pick your "poison", because you cannot function too well in US / Western society without at least one of them. Limiting exposure and taking precautions against them knowing too much is a lot more viable than avoiding all of them forever.