The last thing I would want would be for them to extract payment through the system. I never use PPV and never change programming around or put on holds. As for remote control of system by support, no thank you. Maybe for thee but not for me, as I know their history, and as this thread attests, things haven't improved. They screw up badly enough even with my knowledgeable inputs to them without adding in remote diagnosis. I doubt there's anything they could glean that I could not report from an info screen. As to internet connectivity, why other than for these three possibilities which I have dismissed. I don't even like having my smart tv connected, but it does offer opt-outs for information "sharing," plus I definitely need it for streaming.
Story from back in the DiSH day: We started getting chargebacks from shutoffs of customers of a few months' duration even though we'd installed and serviced them well and properly. Traced a lot of it to PPV- the systems were allowing PPVs to be activated and racked up well into the 3 figures without having to be paid for. So some customers (or more likely their kids, etc.) simply consumed them like candy. Eventually the boxes would finally hit a (high-dollar) limit and stop activating any more. For some that's where it would end. Others got curious about the phone jack on the back and plugged it in to their landline, resulting in both a resumed ability to watch PPV as well as an astronomical bill for the previous consumption, which in many cases went unpaid resulting in shutoff. It sort of put me on (further) notice that this dish outfit didn't necessarily have all of the best customer intentions in mind. Eventually I believe they changed it to require phone connection before any PPVing or set a low dollar limit until connected.