From FTC website: Malware is harmful software that’s installed on your device without your knowledge.

So I think that is what we should continue to call it. LG monitors are installing malware, because they install the software silently and it harms the system by making it slower and disrupting the work of the user with advertisements.

If it's not malware then what is it called today?

I mean, nothing new there. (Mal/Ad/Spy)ware just has been more prevalent in the browser and on mobile apps the last ~15yrs instead of being installed via modified windows installers.

I would be very surprised if some random manager of some low level engineering team made this decision. It seems more likely this was a marketing or partner relations department idea that was presented to high level leadership.

I don't understand why we expect some manager somewhere to stop stuff like this.