I recently did a factory re-install of a system that was purchased around 2012. It had updates rolling in off and on for 3 days.
You can pick and choose, IF you know what you are doing and looking for. Most do not. Also, a lot of updates build on old ones so if you remove the wrong one, you may not get the update you need.
Look at it this way. Windows is a convenient program but it is really a rather shoddy program and people who want to find a way into your system use the weaknesses the op system has.
The updates help block these weaknesses as MS finds them. Over time this accumulates. You only see a couple updates at a time but over the years, the number of those updates gets quite high, as you are seeing.
When you re-install your op-system, the program has no updates, fresh out of MS. It has a lot of catching up to do. It may be excessive, but the program with all its weaknesses is what MS created at the time of introduction. For the most part, ALL the updates are to protect you.
All computers lag, there are various reasons for this and I can't think of any that have to do with the UPDATES. None!
There are quite a few reasons for the computer to run slow.
The biggest problem is fragmentation of the hard drive, the next is the operating system program degrading from use. The program is constantly adding things and deleting things and the op sys is affected by all this action. If you look at the hard drive, the biggest factor to slow your computer down is the hard drive will begin to just run on. Normally, it should only be accessed to get information or a program to run then just idle. Over time, files get affected, or you may be INfected from a virus or keylogger where they steal your information as you type it and send it to the scoundrals that sell your info, credit card, bank account, passwords, etc.
AND LEST WE FORGET, those nasty little viral programs that get in your computer and run behind the scenes slowing your computer down. Some of these fill your hard drive with junk which is why the hard drive runs so long.
Thats why you have anti viral programs on your computer and hope they keep some of this out.
My suggestion is to let the computer update.
When your computer slows down you can try to clean up the hard drive but most times it is easier to just reinstall the op system.