You wrote:
"I don't much care for DTV and its reception problems anymore, " Sorry. Aside from LPTV, it's the only terrestrial over-the-air option. You could use cable, satellite, or internet, of course.
An analog TV with an antenna will "receive" DTV (the only thing being broadcast except for LPTV) but it will not tune/demod and show it to you. It also receives cell phone signals and air traffic control signals, but you can't view them either.
And... "Why would any analog TV with an antenna not receive any of the local stations I've been watching as long as I can remember?" Because DTV is not viewable directly on an analog TV. You can use a converter box, but no clicky knob on them, (and it's not an analog TV receiver, it's a DTV receiver with an NTSC re-modulator.)
Also, the Japanese TV with knob is not a "standard" tuner, if you mean analog NTSC. It is ATSC, with a more traditional simulation of its human interface. It's probably got way more than 12 channel detents. And you probably do a scan for channels, select your "keepers", and then assign them to the rotary knob. At least that's the way I'd design it. So, you could get your big 3 plus PBS, but you'd have to scan for all of 'em, and decide what to keep.
Grab some iced tea, settle in, and read this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC
Then drive down the street on trash day, grab the first CRT TV you see curbside, plug it in to an antenna pointed at Cleveland, and go fishin'. You may see LPTV stations from this list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC
but don't hold your breath for Lester Holt or Scott Pelley.
For details of the federally-mandated analog to digital conversion, read this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WEAO_%28TV%29
specifically under the heading analog-to-digital conversion.
Note that WEAO's sub-channels have 4:3 aspect ratio, 480i programming available. But regardless of the aspect ratio and number of scan lines, it's a DTV signal, requiring a DTV tuner or converter box to view. As it happens, the resulting image would map fairly nicely to an old-style TV set with a detent-tune knob. But you would still have that inescapable, pesky "DTV and its reception problems..."
With few exceptions, this has been the case since probably 2009.
Chip