In a "perfect world", I'd want a phone that never needed updating because it was, well, perfect. Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world, sot he next best thing to me would be a phone that was backed by the manufacturer and they provided quick updates to make the product better.
You can be negative and say "oh, that means it has problems", but really, if they constantly strive to improve the product, that tells me they care and they are listening to the public.
Much better than, as someone else had said above, when the manufacturer offers NO updates and ignores the consumer.