Well, I can't really say if I see many with program updates not functioning at all.
First, I am just a common user. I don't work for avast, so I don't really know any stats. I could only base my guess only on what I see here in the forum, which is not a good measurement. Users don't usually post "my program update was fine", except for some few forum users when testing beta versions (which is nothing when comparing with the whole user base of avast).
Moreover, most program update issues are usually resolved with a couple of posts, since usually the problem is solved with very few simple steps.
About my own personal experience in my own system, I am still using the same old path of avast 5, since the update from 5 to 6 was successful.
I'm not saying there were no "bumps" at all, but in several years of using avast I have only cleaned previous installations so to make clean new ones only twice, and the reasons were not necessarily related to avast.
Since you haven't specified what exactly was the problem when updating from avast 5 to 6, I can't tell you if there was some simpler solution other than a complete clean install anew. It is possible the solution was simpler than that, but we will never know now
.
Since I am still using the old path, I will probably clean up the old installs before the upgrade for avast 7. So that would be my third time, and this time will not be related to any problem at all, but just to reduce the chances of potential future conflicts and to be more helpful to other forum members by having a similar installation as theirs.
I'm glad you have no more issues. Let us know if you find more issues in the future.
