You are correct...or at least partially correct. Yes the TV manufacturer is responsible for hardware but Roku absolutely DOES have input in those decisions when they contract with a company.
Also, when Roku conspires with TCL on such a level as to put their operating system in the TCL hardware, they are also responsible for the overall finished product as far as customer satisfaction. Roku puts their brand/label on TCL TVs therefore, they share in the responsibility for keeping their customers happy. Their brand is why most people purchase a TCL TV.
Do you think cheap TCL TVs would sell at the rate they do, even at the lower prices without the Roku name on the box? Nope.
The popularity of the Roku platform is what sells the bulk of those TVs in the first place. You don't get to rake in the dough and not listen to your customer base and get away with it forever. People are catching on and purchasing other TVs that have traditional remotes/capabilities. Nobody wants to scroll through pages and pages of channels. It's ludicrous.
There are other TVs with the same problem (Samsung for one) and I predict the market will shift in the direction of TVs that not only have streaming platforms but also traditional tuners with remotes because antenna TV is making a comeback in a big way, but even many free TV apps like Pluto literally have over a thousand channels. Nobody wants to sit and scroll for an hour just to see what's on or take literally minutes of time just to page through hundreds of channels in order to turn to a specific channel number that may be pages of channels away. It's completely unreasonable.
Roku has a responsibility to listen to customers and put pressure on manufacturers because they are making a killing and their brand is what sells these TVs. Just my opinion.
