Submission of files, in regard to link 1 doesn't mean everything is fine from there on in.
Having a digital signature is more likely to achieve a long(er) term whitelisting.
Vendors who sign their applications with digital signatures can apply for whitelisting via their digital signature. This type of whitelisting is provided to a limited number of digital signatures, and only if the software developer has a clean track record.
Files that are digitally signed, if changes would essentially break that digital signature and probably the whitelisting too if it were not digitally signed.
In regard to the virustotal link, if only a few virus scans detect a file, that information could be sent to those vendors in much the same way as if only a few don't detect it, that too would be sent. This however wouldn't stop avast from scanning it, just that any false positive detection (signature) could be corrected.
As an Avast user, I can't go into any detail as to how Avast go about this process.