The update took 2 hours for me and I have a reasonably fast PC. Same for my friend. In addition he had to reinstall the game about a week ago and took all night.
I own about a dozen Matrix/Slitherine games and all the rest of them can be installed or updated within minutes.
Same problem here! It's been an issue ever since release.
You can't play multiplayer without updating, but have to set aside the best part of an evening to get update completed! You can re install the entire operating system more quickly. The size and quality of the game doesn't warrent such a lengthy process, unless of cause it's badly written!