I’ve split this from the VSCode default setting topic; if you have concrete examples of where Juliaup was failing you and your students, it’d be hugely beneficial!
A good answer to the core of your question is here:
I also love the simple standalone install. In my experience, the standalone installer works great for the first version the first time. It gets more complicated and unwieldy as you keep using the language and start updating and managing multiple versions. But, yes, that’s a different case than a course where you don’t want folks to update!
It’s also worth noting that a graphical installer/manager for juliaup is something that has been talked about at length in the past — and I’m guessing that’d helpful for your audience.