This is the correct answer if privacy is your priority. They’re not particularly cheap, however.

I’ve done the same! It’s impossible to buy dumb TVs nowadays, but you can always prevent them from connecting to the network.

Chuck 'em in the garbage and get something that doesn’t break when you insist on privacy.

Fair enough.

Thank you for the detailed response! I’m going to give it a try! This will be a step up from OpenWRT on a cheap router, I’ll bet!

Can a device like this act as my router?

Unraid is a great option for anyone, but beginners in particular. It does, however, cost money and isn’t open source.