I have several Amazon Fire HD pads throughout my home. I have successfully used them for years. The WAF is fairly high. I have had the "update" experiences that you describe. I use XDA Fire Toolbox on ALL of my Amazon pads. I use Fully Kiosk on many of them. I turn off auto-update on all of them. It seems to me that Amazon is constantly trying to prevent/reverse that. I have also changed my "wake word" to "Amazon" on one of my pads to avoid summoning other devices. I would love to see Amazon open them up to any wake word the user desires. To maintain full functionality, the pads have to be registered with Amazon. Therein lies the rub. They have at least limited access to what is happening on the pads. My dashboard pads are nice and they work well most of the time. But there are hiccups.
A side note : Look into HD+ for your Amazon pad dashboard needs. I have had an excellent experience with that app.
