Ok, let me try to put some of what is going on in layman’s terms.
The large scale updates such as the Fall Creator’s Update... think of them as more like a traditional service pack. They are about that serious in terms of what happens when you install them. This means that many of the more proprietary driver oriented laptops, possibly like a high end ROG laptop, may have issues if you have for example done several of the major updates or worse done the in-place upgrade a couple years ago from Windows 8, to Windows 10 and have continued from there until now. Windows is likely just a mess at this point.
I would expect some software and driver issues after all that especially on a laptop like yours.
If you can stomach it, creating a new USB install stick from the Microsoft Media Creation Tool page will create a Windows 10 installer with the latest Fall Creator’s update already in it.
If it has been a few years since your last reinstall, this would be a good time to install from scratch directly to the current version of Windows 10, and see how it runs. My guess? The laptop will run great again, and you’ll probably just need to download a couple of proprietary drivers from ASUS for that specific laptop and the latest video card drivers and you’ll be running better than before.
The downside is you’ll have to reinstall all your software.
Yes, Microsoft is pushing the big updates (mini service packs) a little more frequently than before and yes sometimes you need to start over. It’s not really different than Windows has ever been, MS is just too aggressive with their update methodology. They want everyone current all the time. That’s admirable, but the complexity of Windows has always meant that sometimes big updates cause big issues.
My single largest gripe with the current Windows Update system is that it is not anywhere near verbose enough about what updates ARE done, what updatese NEED to be done, and what state the system is in NOW. Further, it does absolutely need a separate menu on the update page for the large updates. Users do need the ability to say “no” permanently to some of the big updates for many various reasons. Eventually, sure, everyone needs to get current but maybe you know your machine doesn’t like the next update or it will break some piece of business software. You need to just be able to halt it entirely and let them pop up warning boxes or something once a day that you need to find a solution to the problem for security sake soon.
Philosophically, I agree with you.
I can’t blame MS for wanting to keep their customers current.
But, they’ve automated the process to the extent where it generally works well. But, when it doesn’t, you don’t know where you are or what is wrong.
A full reinstall of all programs and options is a real pain.
And, I did check my manufacturer’s website, and there have been no new driver upgrades posted since 2015.
So, a clean reinstall would either have to work with MS default drivers, or the old ones, re-entered.
The thing is, the computer works great as is, and if it can’t take the new major pack, I’d be happy to freeze it as is and use it for a few more years until it’s obsolete, and then move on.