Indeed, I would extend that to all technology in general today --- software that seems to need constant updating and is in a state of flux, wondering what else is going to get broken with the next update, etc. Anything web-based has a particularly high churn. It's actually quite unsettling even for someone who isn't running an industrial process but just wants to use their computer to get stuff done.
The lifetime of a lot of industrial process equipment is measured in decades, and maintenance/downtime is very infrequent. Continuous reliability is more important than latest and greatest.
The point being, I see why constant updates are a necessity for anything Internet-connected - but it doesn't make me hate auto-updates any less.
> Continuous reliability is more important than latest and greatest.
For me, as a user and developer, this holds too, but what can one do. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
They are prohibited from touching it because vendors of equipment that is part of the assembly line have contract clauses that can bankrupt them within hours when equipment fails and cannot be repaired or replaced within 2 hours, so they in turn forbid any changes.
The risk aversion that some sysadmins feel towards changes is absolutely nothing compared to what floor managers want out of their technology. They want to never touch it ever. They want it to work and they want never having to ever think about it. This is perhaps the polar-opposite of what IIoT provides today, requiring constant configuration and security patches. And GE and others are still wondering somehow why the tech isn't taking off.