I realise that’s why it was set up the way it was. Maybe a more robust update install procedure could be in the longer term plans: for example downloading the full set of updates packages and dependencies at the random time, but only installing later at a fixed time or following a reboot, and only if there are no missing packages or conflicts.
The problem I had was the router stopped responding to dhcp and dns queries and I had no indication it was due to an update (it could have been a hardware issue, or pretty much anything) and hence I had to power it off and on. After the reboot I found the update was not complete and so I rolled back using schnapps and manually ran it again and debugged.
(I certainly don’t want to come across as being overly critical here; schnapps is superb for dealing with such issues and I’m generally delighted with the flexibility of the Omnia.)