I think that the answer is no, but I'm not 100% sure. What you're asking is the main difference between cheap and expensive printers form the firmware point of view. Good network printers will work with only Postscript or PCL, while cheap ones will need driver installation because they use operating system of the computer which is sending data for printing to process data for printing instead of using their own embedded computer.
Also, I don't see what's the relation of SMB and printer sharing for printers which do have a port. You still need drivers for SMB and why rely on it when computers can directly connect to printer.
EDIT IN RESPONSE TO COMMENTS
You're wrong. You need drivers for each model of printer connected! You don't get "SMB shared printer" Instead it looks as if the remote printer is connected to local computer and you need all drivers it requires. That's why I mentioned Postscript and PCL. They are universal and included with almost every modern operating system, but the rest of the drivers aren't. Also, you can't assume that OS will have or be able to detect drivers for the shared printer even if they are detected at the host computer. I for example have a Samsung SCX-4720F which used to be connected to a computer running Vista 32bit. Other computers on the network running Vista 64bit or 7 32 or 64bit didn't automatically detect drivers for the printer. Instead, I had to go to windows driver catalog and download drivers manually from there.
As to why would you want to use network port: Well why not? It's much simpler that way, especially since printers with network ports are more expensive because they have network ports. There are often cheaper versions without network ports which need a host computer running SMB or something else in order to be shared and that host computer actually has to be turned on when you want to print. The most obvious reason why printers with network ports are used is to avoid having a separate computer just for network connections. Instead, printer's embedded computer has network card and the embedded computer is used to share the printer on network. This way printer is accessible whenever the printer is turned on. You mentioned printers with network port in your question, so I thought that is was self-evident to you why you'd want to use network port and not USB.
As I said, what you need is a pinter which supports Postscript drivers or PCL. You'd just connect it to your network and it will almost certainly "just work". Unfortunately, such features have their price. Their computers need to be powerful enough to process data sent to them and there are licensing problems too. Postscript licenses for printer manufacturers are expensive, so they affect price of the pinter. Some printers will have their own "proprietary totally not postscript, it just looks that way" language so you could look in that direction, if funds are a problem.