Every time I open a previous year's TurboTax it says it updates it with current years updates. WTF? Am I waiting while it does nothing, or worse is it updating old???

Whichever year of the TurboTax program you start may have updates for that particular year.  Only the tax year that your start will receive updates for that tax year if there are any available.

It always asks me if I want to update.   If you are using the Windows Desktop program, the first thing I do after installing the program and doing the first update, is change the Updater settings to ask me first.  To change the Windows program Update Preferences settings go up To Online - Updater Preferences

It is not updating the previous year with current-year updates. It is applying updates for the previous year that came out after the last time you updated.