That's what I said mate. IF you can't skip an update it makes sense, that the links to them should not be removed. They could be put in a spoiler tag or in another post that is linked in the OP. That is especially relevant for games that are so large that it far exceeds the daily download limit of the host sites that are being provided.
As another point of view, the
Update Only links are provided for those who could catch up with every update in a two-week period. And these links were removed maybe because the files no longer existed, they had been replaced by the new ones.
At first, I had the same view as you. I'm sure that after you've browsed through enough of threads, especially the ones that span years or were created years ago, you could notice a certain scene repeating itself over and over again. That is, new replies kept occurring that request for updating broken links, like an update or a patch or a save or a mod, etc. Among those types, the update is the most likely broken one, because when new update came out, nobody would check whether the links had been abused or the file hosts accounts had been banned.
Yes, I know you would say those updates covered the previous contents. But you have to realize that given enough time, all links eventually die and cannot be repaired because the original files are not preserved. Everyone's time and energy is limited, as are hosting and account resources. Let's say that all the update links of this game are kept, then someone reports that a link from six months ago is not working, and for some reason the uploader didn't retain the file, either locally or in the cloud. Are we going to fix it? If so, how much work needs to be done? What if the account that uploads the files is banned and all links are unavailable? Keep only the last few updates? What if someone just happened to miss that one before? Then a new reply occurs...Keep it simple and effective, and no matter what, you can always access the link to the full game.