Yeah, in fact I have the skills for such a setup, but I don't bother. Why would I?
The LG built-in system is actually pretty nice (and the reason why I buy LG TVs). Netflix and Prime Video are a click away. If I have downloaded something, I just plug a USB stick or use the built-in software (SmartShare) to stream from my computer by WiFi. If I want to play some games in the Steam Deck, I plug it with an HDMI cable and it just works. If I want to show my kid a Youtube video, it's a little more inconvenient with the on-screen keyboard but not a big deal. By the way, I have a Sonos Amp connected through HDMI Arc, feeding two wired front speakers and two wireless back speakers, and it works with many versions of Dolby surround sound - I haven't bothered to check if this is easy on PC, but I suspect it might not.
Maybe it's just that I don't watch a lot of TV so I'm not fussy, but I haven't found any particular feature I would like to have that isn't reasonably easy with my smart TV, while I do find significant drawbacks in the PC setup (basically more stuff in the living room, why would I need a keyboard or mouse there?).
So yes. I'm a nerd, and I like my smart TV. Go figure.
Indeed. I have been making my TVs "smart" since around 2001 so that I could watch content from my computer on the TV. I've done it all from DivX CD players to a home theatre PC to network streaming boxes.
Back in the 00s I had a nice setup with a networked media player (connected via SCART back then) that could play my DivX/XviD DVD rips from a network share.
These days I have a NAS running Plex with an Apple TV 4K (2nd gen) and use Infuse for playback that happily plays back 150GB 4K HDR Bluray REMUXES over the network instantly. Also it is accessible anywhere I have internet so I can access my whole media library on a phone, tablet or laptop while away as easily as I can Netflix.
I use my LG "smart" TV like a dumb TV. I don't let it have internet access as it doesn't need it for how I use it although it is connected to the network but it has its own blackhole VLAN just to stop the "connect your TV to complete setup" message it always shows.
I have exactly one reason to fiddle with my smart tv: to use an youtube app with adblocker and sponsorblock. The first could also be achieved by buying premium. But sponsorblock? No, I need to be able to sideload apps for that.
SponsorBlock on my TV would probably be the biggest single value add feature I could do. I pay for YouTube Premium because it is cheap so it is worth it to remove the YouTube ads but it is frustrating how much sponsored crap there is in the videos themselves these days and SponsorBlock is wonderful in the browser.
The problem with WebOS and any other smart TV platform that is not Apple or Roku is that new streaming services either get ported late or not at all to it.
how do you do streaming with SmartShare? closest thing i could find was that the tv supports airPlay off all things. But that seems quite useless without any apple products.
The LG built-in system is actually pretty nice (and the reason why I buy LG TVs). Netflix and Prime Video are a click away. If I have downloaded something, I just plug a USB stick or use the built-in software (SmartShare) to stream from my computer by WiFi. If I want to play some games in the Steam Deck, I plug it with an HDMI cable and it just works. If I want to show my kid a Youtube video, it's a little more inconvenient with the on-screen keyboard but not a big deal. By the way, I have a Sonos Amp connected through HDMI Arc, feeding two wired front speakers and two wireless back speakers, and it works with many versions of Dolby surround sound - I haven't bothered to check if this is easy on PC, but I suspect it might not.
Maybe it's just that I don't watch a lot of TV so I'm not fussy, but I haven't found any particular feature I would like to have that isn't reasonably easy with my smart TV, while I do find significant drawbacks in the PC setup (basically more stuff in the living room, why would I need a keyboard or mouse there?).
So yes. I'm a nerd, and I like my smart TV. Go figure.