Once a patch ships, the hole isn't secret anymore. It's an announcement.
Every program, every phone, every app has holes. Not because the people who write them are careless - but because that much code simply can't be checked all at once. Once you find a hole, you seal it and send the fix to everyone using the program. That's the patch. You see it every time your phone asks "do you want to update the app".
Picture a tooth with a small cavity. Until you go to the dentist, only you feel it hurt - nobody outside can see exactly where the weak spot is. The dentist puts in a filling, and the spot is now clearly marked, but closed. Programs work the same way, with one difference. With the tooth, only you and the dentist know where the hole was. With the patch, the note describing what got fixed is public. Anyone can read it.
Here's the catch. The people who run attacks read these notes exactly the way you read the leaflet inside a medicine box. They compare the old version with the new one, see where the change is, and work out exactly where the hole was. Then they look for whoever hasn't installed the patch yet and go in through there. The longer you wait, the more dangerous it gets - not the other way around.
So the practical rule is simple. When you see "an update is available", don't put it off for days. You don't need to read what's inside, you don't need to understand the code. Just press the button that same day.
Here's the trick
I look at every patch as a public clock that starts ticking the moment it's released. You get a short window before the slow ones become the target. I'm not scared of frequent updates. I'm scared of people who turn them off because they're tired of the pop-ups.
The noise is all the fuss around updating - the icon, the waiting, the restart. What's left is the simple rule: if you're going to update something, do it right away. Not whenever it's convenient - convenience is exactly what the attacker is counting on.