Nighthawk App problems

Firmware updates for Netgear routers (Nighthawk and Orbi) have been confusing for years.  My biggest disappointment is that Netgear provides no documentation about the process.

From observing comments on the Community Forum for nearly 10 years, it appears that:

• Releasing new firmware and making it available for manual download and having the product itself detect new firmware are separate activities.
• There is one school of thought that making new firmware available to "early adopters" allows experienced people to perform additional quality assurance.
  If some time goes by and comments on the forum are positive, Netgear is more likely to "flip the switch" to have products discover the new firmware and download it.
  If there are serious problems, those early adopters are more likely to be able to handle them (such as manually revert to earlier firmware).
  If there are no serious security issues with the existing firmware, there may be little urgency to push users toward the new firmware.
• At some point, the products will detect new firmware if the user activates that feature.
  Users who simply "use the router" and never open the app or web interface remain blissfully unaware that there is new firmware and their routers do not update.
• At some point, Netgear may "throw the switch" and force all routers to update firmware.

Unfortunately, while there appears to be a process, there are numerous examples where Netgear handled a firmware release differently.