What makes for a good upgrade experience for the end user in terms of release scope?

I'm trying to come up with a point of view of what should be in scope for a quarterly release.

In my experience, some companies do upgrades very well. For example, upgrading to the latest Mac OS tends to go smoothly, triggers a guided tour, and introduces a combination of "under the hood" upgrades but also some noticeable UI&UX improvements.

Other upgrades have left me feeling like I had to do a lot of clicking and waiting for "security upgrades" that I wouldn't understand and seem to leave me with exactly the same UX. I'm not saying such releases aren't necessary, just that they lack identity.

Are there any golden rules? I'm not really looking for opinions so much as articles/posts that provide some rationale. I've searched but can only find guidance on how to release software, which is not what I'm interested in.