Obviously your £20 would get you access to more than just one channel (BT Sport 4k) but as you're currently a Sky customer I can see where you are coming from with that statement. I reckon you are correct in your assumption re the Youview box handling installation the same way as your new tv has done.
Hi @Keith_Beddoe, this may be of use to you as a Guru.
My T4000 box installed without an aerial in September, no problem at all which was good as I don't have one. However, I did a soft reset tonight and it would not find the 103 internet channels, it was saying that I needed to have an aerial connected. It would allow me to scan for channels but would find nothing.
I then did a hard reset (keeping recordings) and the set up process continued smoothly and found the 103 subscription channels. So it will and won't work without an aerial, it just depends on which maintenance modes you use.
The software on Youview boxes seems to be very iffy, poorly thought out and lacking logic.
There's a certain irony about maintenance modes that are put there to help the customer, yet they can put the customer in an even worse situation than they were before.