> can Office updates be included similarly to Windows Updates (and applied when the device is starting up/shutting down), etc
The Click 2 Run versions of Office have a scheduled task (Office Automatic Updates 2.0) that periodically checks for updates and downloads update files.
Updates can't be applied if the Office program that has to be updated is being used by the user. If updates can't be applied for several days, under this case when the user restarts the computer, the updates are applied as Windows starts. But this won't prevent the user from logging in.
For more, please refer to "Apply the updates for Microsoft 365 Apps".
If you don't want to update Office through this scheduled task you can update Office by installing an updated version.
On one test machine, you can add <Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" CompletionNotice="No" SuppressModal="Yes" /> in configuration file and run ODT with it to have a check.
Any updates, you can post back.
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