SCALE now has a configuration form for the dashboard.
What if we made this a dashboard configuration option?
If it was configurable, we would have the flexibility of turning it off for customers that need it that way.

It could read something like...

[] "Show update availability in System Information"

Furthermore, our enterprise customers don't typically run out and download the latest update. They tend to wait. If a compromise must be made, then I like Damian's suggestion.

Please try to remember that our product is used by enterprises and not just home users. So "a network request" to a homer user is much less of a problem for a paying enterprise customer that wants to know why when they log into their TrueNAS, it tries to make an outbound network connection.

I agree with Damian. Should have paid more attention to the ticket when it appeared on the queue.
We want users to update. I'll take a network request over users updating less frequently.

Considering that the dashboard is there to give the user an overview of the system’s state, I would argue there is utility in letting the user know an update is available.

With that said, I agree we don't need to check every time the dashboard is pulled up. Maybe a good compromise might be to fetch and cache update availability once on initial page load, and only do subsequent calls if the user navigates to System Settings > Update.