What? how is this better? what all of this is is apt making users say yes to everything such as config changes. I'm totally fine with that. Sure it's an extra line or 2 when automating, but I don't see it as bad.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather use the tool that I don't have to hack the training wheels off of first when I'm trying to update 100,000 machines to mitigate a critical security issue.
1. Security updates don't add debconf prompts
2. Supporting large numbers of systems is exactly when a persistent local configure database becomes useful for avoiding unanticipated regressions