Microsoft cannot brick my computer on a whim like they have the power to with later versions of windows.
You can turn updates off for the following versions of Windows too.
Chances are they update broke because their computer was infected by something that didn’t play well with the update, I don’t know why you would think the odds are zero and don’t know why you would think something similar couldn’t happen with a Windows 7 update (not that you would care since you don’t get updates anymore, but you might want to care about infection risks though, going on the internet for you is like joining an orgy and leaving your condoms at the door).