I can relate to both points of view, and I have followed both paths at different times, with different sets.
Most of my TVs are restored to be operational "front to back," just as the designers intended. But in a handful, for whatever reason, I ended up installing jacks to inject audio and video.
In my
Admiral 24C15 console, I made the A/V connection switchable, so you can either plug in a VCR or DVD player directly, or flip the switch and watch whatever comes in through the antenna (for example, from my
in-home TV transmitter). This article describes the switchable setup:
https://antiqueradio.org/A-V_AdapterForVintageTVs.htm
When I got rid of that Admiral set, the switchable input was a nice selling point!
I also built an A/V adapter for my RCA CT-100, based on a design from the 1956
RCA Broadcast News. The adapter requires no hardwired connections to the CT-100 and it has a switch to toggle between direct input and an antenna signal:
https://antiqueradio.org/VideoAdapte...Television.htm
In another case, my DuMont RA-102, I experimented with direct input, using a preamp/video inverter, but I ended up not installing it. In part, this was just a fun experiment, but it also helped me evaluate my TV's condition. The preamp/inverter worked, but its picture wasn't dramatically better than the alternative (i.e., the native picture was pretty darned good!). The RA-102 also has more historical importance than most of the TVs in my collection, so I put the injector aside and left the factory wiring alone.
https://antiqueradio.org/DuMontRA-10...Television.htm
There's more than one way to skin a cat! And with a little forethought, you can make a direct input switchable, or at least easily reversible. If I sell a TV where I have installed an A/V input, I'll include a note explaining how to uninstall it and restore the factory connections.
Regards,
Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
https://antiqueradio.org/index.html