As for the different problems you mentioned:
- software conflict: so what if there's no other security software installed besides Windows Firewall?
- firewall: so how come streaming / virus definition updates working just fine? Is avast using different servers for the program update? Will the firewall "say" yes to streaming, but no for program updates?
- repair: then how come after one repair and one good automatic update this issue comes back? Shouldn't avast investigate and treat this issue with more concern?
As for the "personal" reasons - there are no such reasons for me.
I'm here not only for myself but also for the community.
Besides, I have it installed on a lot of computers and I want to know it'll work as it should.
All of us, avast users, should and could benefit from an efficient security solution.
I will go about it differently - I'll contact their support and update here about it.
In the meantime I'm investigating and searching for more topics about it so I'll see how others solved it, if at all.
By the way, I did contacted them in the past and they suggested the repair. As I mentioned, it worked only for one good automatic update, and after that this issue came back.
I will let them know about it soon.
As for you preference - I do appreciate the control and the "unwanted surprises" reasons - I'm myself like this, and I treated like that to all of the software until recently. But now to me security is more important, and a security software should update as soon as possible.