Dell SupportAssist vs Dell Update

Can someone please, once and for all, tell me how to officially get notified of driver, BIOS, and other system updates for Dell computers? I recently had some issues with the April 2018 Win10 update which caused me some grief. After extensive back and forth, Dell Support told me to update some drivers. Funny, because Dell Update never told me of any drivers that needed updating. I was told by Dell Support that the Dell Update program, which used to alert me to driver, BIOS, etc. updates, was being phased out for a newer version of Dell SupportAssist. Fine, whatever. Dell SupportAssist is a bloated piece of garbage that has many issues, but if that's how it's going to be, sure. This all went down back in May 2018.

Fast forward to yesterday and I'm on my wife's laptop (same model as mine--Inspiron 15 5579) and I run the SupportAssist to see if there are any updates. There are a couple of driver/system updates. I tell SupportAssist to download them. It attempts to, but doesn't. Again, SupportAssist fails to a) notify me of updates and b) to actually install said updates. I go to the support page for my laptop and download the alleged updates to install manually except, what's this? It's the same version that's already installed! For both packages! OK, that's weird, why is SA telling me that I need to update if I'm already up to date? Not only that, but I also see there is a new BIOS update that SA completely failed to tell me about (as did Dell Update, v2.x).

Great, so, whatever. I download and manually install the BIOS update. I go back into SA to scan again for updates. SA keeps telling me there are two updates for various drivers. I've already updated everything manually. It's almost like the alert for updates won't "clear" from SA. I can't rescan without installing what I already installed, and when I attempt to install the updates from SA, it just sits there saying it's trying to download or whatever. So I uninstall SA and reinstall and now it's telling me there are no updates. OK, cool, I'm good to go.

However, I also noticed on the support download page that there was a brand new (v3.x) version of Dell Update! What?! I was told by Dell Support that Dell Update was being cancelled. I prefer Dell Update because it was smaller and it worked great when I first set up my laptop in November. But they wanted to unify under SA, I was told. So why the new version of Dell Update?

Anyway, I install the new version of Dell Update and it now detects some new updates! They're optional, but I'm getting so confused and frustrated with this process I need some clarification here.

1) What is the best way to get automatic notifications for updates to my system? Is it Dell SupportAssist or Dell Update?

2) Why do none of these programs seem to be telling me when new updates actually get released? Why am I still forced to either run the programs manually to find the updates or to go to the support webpage and manually search for new updates? The whole point of these programs is to be automatic.

3) Why am I seemingly unable to actually download/install updates from either SupportAssist aor Dell Update? I can manually download them just fine from the website and installation goes without a hitch from there.

4) Why does Dell Support seem to give unclear, inaccurate, and/or inconsistent messaging on any of these programs? Why was I ever told Dell Update was going to be phased out when clearly it is still being updated?

5) Why does SupportAssist still have a popup in non-admin user accounts (see https://www.dell.com/community/Windows-10/Dell-Update-Problems-User-Account-Control/td-p/5187506/page/4) for more info? I've used the workaround in that thread, but can you guys actually fix the issue, please?

I have two of the same Inspiron 15 5579 laptops and they both have the same issues with lack of notifications for updates from either SupportAssist or Dell Update. Both laptops are running the most up to date software for both apps (SupportAssist = 2.2.1.23, Dell Update = 3.0.0).

I really want to get to the bottom of this. It shouldn't be so hard to keep my computers up to date using your own, pre-installed, in-house software, yet here I am. I've uninstalled and reinstalled SA so many times I've lost count. Even your own Support Team has done it, yet here I am, unable to get notifications that there are updates to either of my laptop unless I'm manually checking, and even then I'm unable to actually get said updates without needing to manually download and install them from the website. Can someone, anyone, please clarify on the points above and set the record straight on the best way to get automatic updates?