I used to be able to click the notification about outdated software, check the software needing updates and for example when Adobe Air and Firefox were outdated I clicked the update button on each of them and Avast would then automatically load up the installer making the process very easy…
Now it sends me to Adobe’s website or download.com respectively, it won’t even give me the pt-BR Firefox installer… It’s worthless now…
Only the Avast Free Edition checks for updates to your programs. If one of them is out-dated, Avast Software Updater notifies you that it’s out-dated and it needs an update. Once you click on the software that is out-dated, Avast Software Updater sends you to the publisher website so you can download the up-to-date software.
In the Premier version of Avast it does the opposite of Free Edition. It automatically updates your software if it’s out-dated, you don’t need to do anything!
I don’t see why that’s worse?
Free never did automatically update software.
It was and still is Premier that does the automatic update.
avast free does let you know if you are or are not up-to-date.
For what it’s worth, I check with the Software Updater then go to my preferred
site to download the update. 
I never said it automatically updated before.
Practical example: as I described in version 8 it’d load up the Adobe Air installer instantly when I click on the software’s “update” button without opening any website page, now it sends me to adobe.com (or download.com for Firefox for example, which isn’t even served in my currently installed idiom).
I know this kind of behavior isn’t new, as Avast would aways send me to videolan.org for VLC, but I thought it’d be improving over time, supporting the instant loading of more software’s installers… It went backwards.