Could Pkg.add perhaps add the latest compatible locally installed version? I want add to add things a.s.a.p., and update can take time to update.
I use separate environments for different scripts, and often use packages with large dependency trees like ModelingToolkit and Makie. When adding these packages to a new environment because I want to quickly try something, I almost always have to wait a long time since usually some of their deps have updated since my last install and it needs to precompile again.
It’s hard for users to think about changing their workflow to avoid more precompilation than they need, but changing Pkg.add behavior would be automatic for everyone. Pkg.status will tell you what is outdated.