You can, but it's not a perfect solution. Mostly because the TVs interface is still designed around this app mentality.
I bought a Samsung TV recently and it's never been on the internet, but I still have to go to a dead home screen where all of the ads would be just to switch inputs and half the buttons on the remote are for services I don't want.
Whew, for a second there I thought someone was burning people alive in an illegal fashion.