But how do you feel about those that only offer to update and don't give you the option to d/l and archive?
That doesn't bother me one bit. If I need to revert to a previous version there is always Time Machine. Even if there is a complete disk failure, Time Machine will enable me to recover. As far as that goes, if there is an application I want to be double or triple sure of recovering, Clean App does a decent job of identifying all the various bits parts and pieces associated with the app after it is installed and will neatly archive the app without deleting it.