^^^^^^^^^^^
+1 THIS.
It's open to debate, depending on the depth/scope of such, especially a jump to say ANDROID 4.0 > 4.1, which brought about PROJECT BUTTER.
For example,the MOTOROLA XYBOARD is a great tablet,but, sorely lacks ANDROID 4.1,being forever marooned on 4.0.4,which would have probably kept me from selling mine. As it is a full featured top-notch device, having a beautiful display/dual cameras/HD video/dual speakers/I-R BLASTER, etc...., it lacked the smoothness of ANDROID 4.1, a deal breaker, IMHO, once you've tried any device w/it.
However, for the most part, I agree w/your view on fast updates. Of course it's nice to get them in a timely manner, but, more often than not, there's more hype than substance surrounding most updates.