Even without wifi, these TVs are full of slow garbage operating system, and I wouldn't be surprised if some vendor is making a TV which you must connect to the internet to use.
Even if the TV requires internet connection and the OS is garbage, once I set the input source to Chromecast, I never have to interact with the TV's OS.
Well for one thing, many of them run content recognition software and report back what you're watching, regardless of whether it's through the "smart tv" software, apple tv, chromecast, etc.
