I wonder if part of it is horribly cheap flash storage used in smart TVs, after a bunch of update cycles, telemetry upload/downloads, etc. etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the flash chips might be wearing out and take longer to read/write to.
That or the TV companies are intentionally making previous TVs slower with updates they know old TVs can't run with any modicum of speed.
> I wouldn't be surprised if the flash chips might be wearing out and take longer to read/write to.
This is what happened to the Nexus 7 tablets, I owned one and the experience, which was great at first, became terrible over time.
Smart TVs are a mistake, unfortunately most (maybe all current productions) are smart TVs nowadays. TVs are something that can last a long while - I kept my old dumb TV for 10 years before the backlight became too dark for my liking -, smart components on the other hand.. plus, it's not like it's a huge inconvenience or extra expense to add something like a chromecast or fire tv to get literally the same experience the smart components provide, except that this time, if the stick dies, you don't have to replace the whole tv.
That or the TV companies are intentionally making previous TVs slower with updates they know old TVs can't run with any modicum of speed.