It seems like an awful neat solution to me to plug the TV into the ethernet and there you go...
If you look at low end TVs you'll find the "useful life" limited more by the hardware than by the software. If the hardware can't do it, for instance, no H.265 decoding for you.
Then again, pretty much all 5 year TVs or so will easily handle H.264 in their supported panel resolution. Which doesn't help you if your Netflix / YouTube app was never updated and can't connect to the service anymore.
H.265 is generally only used for 4K content and 4K TVs carry decoders with them mostly.
If you look at low end TVs you'll find the "useful life" limited more by the hardware than by the software. If the hardware can't do it, for instance, no H.265 decoding for you.