One other distinction to make is that auto-update typically runs the same code on a lot of computers, rather than a RAT which is good at running code on a speci

One other distinction to make is that auto-update typically runs the same code on a lot of computers, rather than a RAT which is good at running code on a specific computer. There's still room for problems... the auto-update could deliver a special version for special people or deliver a version that has special code targeted at run-time, but it's not as easy. And I'd love to see work on minimizing problematic updates as well.