I got an LG CX tv and never hooked it up to the internet. It acts as a (very pretty) yet dumb tv like the old days.

An Nvidia shield handles all the streaming, kodi handles local files etc, all the media that I could possibly need.

4k is handled by default out of the box.

Surround sound is handled by an AV receiver. (Atmos surround is available if I wish to further upgrade the 7.1 speakers).

It can be done. Granted, it’s not cheap and installing all these devices can be painful, but still.

I looked into it too ;)

    - Large Monitors are unavailable or (if you use business monitors) a lot more expensive and usually don't have latest panel tech.

Agree, monitors in regular TV sizes are way more expensive than the largest 'cheap' monitors. But I'd rather make a decision between paying $300 CAD for a 32" monitor that is 'large enough' but not huge or a ~43" monitor that is way larger, has 4k etc. and costs ~$1200 CAD etc. or a $500 50" 4k "generic Smart TV" in "dumb mode" than to use it as an actual Smart TV.

    - You'll loose surround sound and also 4K on most platforms

There you go, no expensive 4k monitor needed if you can't get it anyway. Surround sound I'll give you but see your sibling if you are so inclined to go the potentially unlawful but ethically probably totally OK route.

    - The integration is usually worse (you'll have to start more devices, if you're lucky CEC decides to work)

To be fair it's been a while that I've had cable and had to deal with that and that was in low-def times (so I had a cable card in the mythtv server). I don't fancy setups w/ IR switching cable channels and such but to be honest, I think it's worth it to at least try if you have to keep actual cable for some reason. Nowadays other viable options than having cable do exist if you ask me.

    - Good luck with HDR

I probably just don't know what I am missing and as long as it stays that way it's like staying on 720p and a monitor most people would think is way too small but actually totally adequate than to complain that my huge 4k one looks bad with that source material ;)

    offline smart TV are good contenders, too

Totally agree, if you're looking for a cheap huge "monitor" that can definitely be a good option as long as you stay away from the actual "features" and are fine with the other limitations.

Personally I'm on a 32" regular HD IPS panel monitor. Given the size of the living room and how far away the sofa is, this is totally adequate (I upgraded from my >>>10 year old 4:3 "I don't even remember the size of it" monitor when it finally broke!). Surround sound depends on the source. If it's Netflix the upmix is "good enough" for most of what the kids wanna watch and then there's other material too where proper AC3 is available. Most of the times I can't really have the bass turned up anyway so as not to wake the kids :P