I don't think you can freeze the updates. When I had the first Galaxy Note7, I had auto-update disabled. One day I got a notification for an update and I knew it was going to limit the battery so of course I ignored it. A few hours later, my phone shut down in the middle of using it and installed the update.
They literally forced the update and there was no way to stop it.
If T-Mobile in the US does this with the replacement Note 7 as they did with the first Note, I'll go down to the S7 edge. I can't have my battery life limited.
What I don't understand is that if this issue is so urgent as the media likes to say, why didn't Samsung do this update already?