My only pain in the rear about this as a dial-up user, is the attempt to make a connection when you open the UI, that never happened in 4.8 avast was clever enough to wait until a connection was established rather than attempt to establish one.
I hate this in any program that attempts to automatically connect to the internet on my system to that end there are very few programs I allow auto update too, avast being one. Now the avast update is clever enough not to try to update when there is no connection 'and' it doesn't try to establish a connection, so why this logic can't be passed on the advert is beyond me.
The advert is relatively unobtrusive, much less than the in your face advert of 4.8, but what is obtrusive is the attempt to connect.
I would also have thought avast smart enough to cache the advert (as presumably it did in 4.8 ), so it was available and would populate the UI automatically without requiring a connection. When a connection is established it could then check for updates in a) the virus signatures and engine and b) if you have the free version, the latest advert. The updated advert could then be cached and used the next time the UI is opened.