I would rather have the critical system files locked while Windows is loaded. If it was a server, I would understand allowing those files to be changed, but on my workstation I run lots of code that other, not necessarily trustworthy people have written. Keeping the files that Windows relies on most safe from editing (while the computer is on) seems worth having to restart every couple weeks or so for updates.
I would put this forward: If you run on a system where it gets slower the longer it is left on (which is almost universally from programs running on top of the OS), you should have to restart for any update which changes any critical part of the OS (which I would roughly define as any piece of the OS required to get to a desktop/terminal window).
I would put this forward: If you run on a system where it gets slower the longer it is left on (which is almost universally from programs running on top of the OS), you should have to restart for any update which changes any critical part of the OS (which I would roughly define as any piece of the OS required to get to a desktop/terminal window).