Personally the main difference between the sets I have is the electronic program guide. We have a Blaupunkt very cheap from Tesco £150 for 43" on black Friday two years ago, reasonable EPG and stations in right order, but locks up some times, specially if used as a computer monitor, will not record, it is HD. We have two very old LG sets 32" with built in hard drives, the EPG is useless, and not HD for freeview, but around 15 years old so what can one expect. Panasonic 32" also around 15 years old, EPG A1, again no HD on freeview but been a good set.
Last 32" is a Polaroid only available from Asda, it is a love or hate TV, attach a hard drive or stick and it will record, EPG not very good, again only £150 so can't expect too much, however it is the program order which is good/bad point. 1 to 99 are analogue, and 100 to I think 300 are digital and you can change the order to suit yourself, so if some one says did you watch channel 14 last night, it means nothing, but to can get ITV3 and ITV3+1 next to each other.
Although we have freeview at mothers house, never set up an aerial here, all TV's use a dish and a satellite receiver. So not worried what freeview does, so TV is in the main a monitor, except for internet viewing, both the £150 sets get Utube Polaroid and Blaupunkt, the latter falls over with BBC Iplayer, not tried the Polaroid, the two sets need moving inputs to get full screen with PC, and Polaroid has higher resolution to Blaupunkt, since using Sky+ HD with Blaupunkt not worried that it will not record.
Non of my TV's are A1, however the LG is rather old, and the modern ones are rather cheap. I love Utube I watch old films on Utube regular. So yes like the new TV's, as to spending double to get a better model, to my mind no point, freesat has far more than freeview, so not going to bother getting a set with better freeview, as I don't use it.
Main TV has a windows 10 PC connected, So although can get Utube direct on TV, no real point as can also watch with the PC. Over the years I have collected as well as Sky+ HD two other Sky boxes, one HD satellite box, and two non HD boxes, I have 8 satellite connections, and I need 7, so although Moel-y-parc is direct line of sight, it is not at this point used.
I am considering getting rid of Sky, yes I do watch some Sky only programs, but not enough to be worth the fee. I hope this helps you decide best way forward.