The truth is that most magic specials on TV rely on the same kinds of principles and effects that we do, and they do their best to present the tricks the way a live laymen would see them. If some funny business is visible to the camera but not the live spectators, they cut it.
The reason they do that is not to cheat, but to make sure the home audience has the same experience that the live one does. To create that experience for the on-the-scene crowd, they use magic principles, and to recreate that for the people at home they use editing and camera placement so the home audience is more likely to "miss" the same things that were missed by the live group. Sometimes it means removing the act of writing from a billet trick, and sometimes it means having a "stooge" (which to me is no more bothersome than the use of a thumb tip).
There are TV tricks that only work on television, but those tend to be sparsely used. I've watched a LOT of the newer magic specials, and the format for many of them seems to be to use mostly or entirely "legitimate" magic for as much of the show as possible, then finish with a "TV trick" that's usually a TV remix of some classic grand illusion.
I've noticed that many people assume that most of the tricks on TV are done with paid audiences and camera tricks, but my observation doesn't reflect this. Some TV magic is used to heighten those shows for TV audiences, but from what I can tell the majority of that magic can be done without stooges or camera tricks.
Magic is absolutely a form of theatre, and as such the audience is taken into account when it's created. TV magic looks the way it does and is built the way it is because it's presented to a TV audience that consists mostly of laymen. To make that work, they have to do different things than if they were performing on a stage or elsewhere. That's the nature of theatre. Your venue and audience has a heavy impact on how you present.
Finally...the stooge thing. Stooges are a method for deception, like pretty much everything else we use. Nothing more, nothing less. It's not any better or worse than having a stage crew working to make sure a play goes smoothly. To be used properly, the stooge principle takes the same level of study and understanding that any other method does. There's really no reason to frown on it the way a lot of performers do.