It depends, but in general I disable game updates by default on any platform that lets me, or disable them until I play it next. But then I usually update it manually before I play it too unless I know for sure about some issue with the update from a gaming community such as this. I used to update my GOG game downloads regularly and keep multiple versions of everything around but haven't done that for a few years now due to lack of disk space and other technical reasons but I'm about to start doing that again sometime in the next few months and going forward. GOG Galaxy has the game-rollback feature to undo the last update so it's low risk to allow an update to get installed via Galaxy IMHO also.

On other game platforms that require the game be the latest version as the only option, and do not have downloadable installers I guess the only preference in those cases is whether to buy the game in the first place there or not if it matters, and strongly prefer GOG instead of those other platforms, since there is no other viable choice really.

Another issue though, is if a newer version of a game has improvements etc. but it comes at a cost of lowered performance on your specific hardware, which has happened before to me too. Same options as above apply to that though.

Yet another possible issue is a game update breaking mods, which is almost always a given for any game update of any game, kinda comes with the turf so to speak though.

In general, I rarely ever concern myself too deeply about all of it though. It'd have to be a specific game with specific reasons that I'm pre-aware of to really concern too much about it.

Half a bank of games get regular updates and I really do not even play these games. On the bright side, they are being fixed. But as long as I can play something else for a few years, I'm all set waiting.

Unless the game really is a full complete game for the most part like RimWorld. But the can of worms with such games, is not the game normally not working. It is the mods that are never updated to a latest version and then I miss something I enjoyed for 6-12 months.

Plus the old not working with the new is always a nuisance.

I don't mind at all.
New games are usually patched multiple times before I finish them.
Sometimes I update, sometimes I don't. Depends if I was aware of an update or not (when not using a launcher I might miss the updates). But if I'm aware, I usually do update. They don't implement fixes for fun.

Older games already had multiple bug fixes, so it doesn't matter for those.

Auto update always off. More maintenance in exchange for more control. Full backup (external drives) for every game installed. Backup backups for the most important. Earlier version full copies can be re-installed over unwanted update versions. (Works for me, but Not Guaranteed). This is important both for modded and stock game experience consistency. To be fair, updates rarely make dramatic gameplay changes, and sometimes those changes are better, still prefer to consent to those changes. Modded can be quite different, when an update can change gameplay from just how you like it to nonfunctional.

Also, how many updates are actually patches (bug fixes, qol improvements, other small but useful tweaks) and how many are only DLC enablers? One of my non GOG games from 2014 recently wanted an 8 GB update to sell me not just DLC, but a season pass for multiple pieces of it. Serious Skyrim64 mod users know how many times that has happened since its release.

Anyway, the much shorter answer is: As little as possible.

edit. spelling