I don't mind doing it from the CLI, but I really don't want to have to manually download all the patches, figure out dependencies, and push them to my hosts using something like SCP, or having to build a custom repository. I was hoping that the "Stage" process in Update Manager would figure out all that for me and upload the patches somewhere on the host. At that point I could shut down the vCenter and work from SSH.
It would be really nice if vxpd on the hosts had a command line for "remediate offline" or "process staged updates" or something to finish the process without Update Manager, then once Update Manager scans it again next time it could report back that it finished. I guess I'll play around with the staging process and see what can be done to automate it a little more, if anything.