I've shunned the App Store so far, but my understanding is that it doesn't allow you to maintain an archive; it searches every volume it can find and updates anything it finds that is subject to an update.
I use the App Store extensively and your understanding has little or no basis in facts.
- It only installs apps into the application folder of the boot drive and these are essentially drag and drop installs.
- It only updates apps in the /Applications folder of the boot drive. Here again the update is t all intents and purposes a drag and drop install that overwrites the previous version, unless the previous version has been moved to a different location.
- There is no automatic update per. se., the user has to open the App Store application, click on updates, if there are updates either select All or the specific app(s) to be updated, and enter the Apple account password. From that point on the update is automatic.
When you say it does not allow you to maintain an archive it does not do so automatically, rather it requires some responsibility on the part of the user. There are "archives" of previous versions in the Time Machine backup and there is nothing to prevent the user from "archiving" a copy of the app before installing an update.
