I just thought it was unusual because it was updating quite regularly for a while (every few days). Lately, every few days has become every few weeks, hence my concern.
Of course, I don't expect everything for free

, but the starter edition is free because it lacks almost all on-guard scanners, not because it doesn't get updated. Essentially, the starter edition is just the manual scan (well, you can do scheduled scans, but no real-time protection). I think the least I can expect is a fairly up-to-date program.
The main question I want answered is whether other people with the starter edition have still been getting updates, while I have not.