Hi, pppfsense
I had the same - took aeons, but updated successfully. If you have huge fanbase, huge trafficsurge, so need much bandwith, what do you do:
You buy more. So, where does the money come from? think…
And also this: Every single update i did on my pf-boxes allways (yes, i go with the 100% here, a very seldom but honored, valued 100%) went through, even remote, since i use pf, on first days and also later (second and thirday max).
Don't know what happend with yours, but from my end, it looks good here - you might want to consider your statement about robustness and testing...
And yes, with zyxel, sonicwall fortigate cisco .. name em...and so on, it can happen (too) now and then - even got briked several times, and payed for several times (resp. customers paid for). That why i ended up here.