I always use a version tag, but I don’t spend any time reading release notes for 95% of my containers. I’ll go through and update versions a couple times a year. If something breaks, at least I know that it broke because I updated it and I can troubleshoot then. The main consideration for me is to not accidentally update and then having a surprise problem to deal with.
Federation is a tool to connect instances together. If one instance isn’t being run in a way that you like, you can and should create an account on a different instance that better aligns with your ideals. Or, if you can’t find any such instance, then you can create your own instance. This is the beauty of federation!