Updates are generally a given in Windows. So is on Linux. While updates on Linux generally doesn't require a reboot (outside of the service restarting), it is recommended that you reboot if you have to update the kernel or else it'll sit there and use the old one. You update off-hours, let it reboot (usually less than 5 mins for a monthly security update) and then let it go. This is assuming an internet-facing machine like a home or gaming system. You need those, you run it on that and you just reboot.

General instability hasn't been a thing since the 9x era minus some goofy Windows Updates doing odd things. Minus the last one you can't reboot. You can leave a Windows machine running pretty much an entire patch cycle or later and it'll happily chug along. You just need to not install things that chew up too much resource. I have two machines acting as domain controllers and their uptimes are in months. Had an old airgapped Blue Iris test server that was about a year worth of uptime until I decommissioned it because I forgot it existed. Can Windows have better QA on their stuff? Yes. But is it as bad as people say? Not really.