Or they can go all fancy or something and say 'reboot login' or 'reboot
session' sounds like something linux would have

I too have noticed a few more updates that ask for reboot. However you
can leave this alone and do the normal shut down at the end of the day
then the updates will become active on startup the next day. Ubuntu
will not nag you that it wants a re-boot

I usually go ahead and let it "reboot" since I
don't shut the computer down unless I nee to change something in the box.

Anther reason to use Linux. No nag window like that other OS does. And to
make it worst, it will force an reboot.

I think you will find that the window you speak of says that for the
updates to take effect you will need to reboot. You have the option of
waiting for the updates till you need to restart the machine.

I think that re-booting is not necessary, but the thinking is changing. In
the "old days" most people had desktop computers and left them running
24/7. Now most people have laptops (not me) and re-booting is more
frequent. There has always been an advantage to re-booting in the you can
use the changes right away.

As for looking down noses at Windows users, there is still no comparison.
Windows nags are more in your face and forceful. The Ubuntu one is
discreet. Also a re-boot in Linux and Windows is not the same. when you
re-boot Windows there is a major delay on either the beginning or end, or
both as things are installed and written to the registry, then reloaded.