[Moto G5 Plus ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other De] mmortal03:
Nope, I haven't gone to the trouble of modifying the hosts file -- I've been trying to test this issue in as vanilla/fresh state as possible. I'm not interested in making this my primary phone until we get this resolved, lol. :)

Exactly! I don't believe those repeated SystemUpdate messages are normal. That's the bit that I've been focusing on.

One thing I just noticed is if I turn off WiFi (and data is already off), the repeated SystemUpdate messages stop, and eventually the following will appear:

07-20 02:03:49.082 2656 6167 E SystemUpdate: [Execution,PreDownloadValidateAction] Failed to download.
07-20 02:03:49.085 2656 6167 I SystemUpdate: [Control,InstallationControl] Installation progress updated to (0x116, -1.000).
07-20 02:03:49.104 2656 6167 I SystemUpdate: [Control,InstallationControl] Resume on reboot feature enabled: true.
07-20 02:03:49.136 2656 6167 I SystemUpdate: [Execution,ExecutionManager] Action pre-download-validate executed for 0.15 seconds.
07-20 02:03:49.140 2656 6167 I SystemUpdate: [Execution,ExecutionManager] Action exponential-backoff-delay-execution executed for 0.00 seconds.

Taking that at face value, you would think it shouldn't try again until I reboot the phone... however, they come back after turning on WiFi again and waiting a bit. But I wonder if there's a way to toggle that "Resume on reboot feature" to false?

Btw, when I installed 7.6, I intended to test your theory about OTA updates. I will let it install 7.15 over 7.6 and then see what happens.

Oh, and for reference, here is an example of the repeated SystemUpdate messages that I'm seeing:

07-20 02:00:32.878 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: Could not set socket write timeout: java.net.SocketException: Socket closed
07-20 02:00:32.879 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.Platform.setSocketWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):2)
07-20 02:00:32.879 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.ConscryptFileDescriptorSocket.setSoWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):0)
07-20 02:00:32.943 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: Could not set socket write timeout: java.net.SocketException: Socket closed
07-20 02:00:32.944 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.Platform.setSocketWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):2)
07-20 02:00:32.944 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.ConscryptFileDescriptorSocket.setSoWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):0)
07-20 02:00:33.084 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: Could not set socket write timeout: java.net.SocketException: Socket closed
07-20 02:00:33.085 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.Platform.setSocketWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):2)
07-20 02:00:33.086 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.ConscryptFileDescriptorSocket.setSoWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):0)
07-20 02:00:33.147 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: Could not set socket write timeout: java.net.SocketException: Socket closed
07-20 02:00:33.148 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.Platform.setSocketWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):2)
07-20 02:00:33.148 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.ConscryptFileDescriptorSocket.setSoWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):0)
07-20 02:00:33.225 2656 4583 I SystemUpdate: [Execution,PackageFiles] Allocating file /cache/metadata with size 610.
07-20 02:00:33.235 2656 4583 I SystemUpdate: [Execution,ExecutionManager] Action pre-download-validate executed for 0.42 seconds.
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: [Execution,ExecutionManager] Unable to create the action. Restart the execution from the scratch.
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: java.lang.IllegalStateException
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: at xaj.k(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):0)
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: at bmga.f(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):0)
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: at bmet.a(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):10)
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: at com.google.android.gms.update.execution.InstallationIntentOperation.onHandleIntent(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):12)
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: at com.google.android.chimera.IntentOperation.onHandleIntent(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):2)
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: at uzc.onHandleIntent(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):4)
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: at ffs.run(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):3)
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: at ffr.run(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):11)
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: at cfnu.run(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):2)
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1167)
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:641)
07-20 02:00:33.239 2656 4583 W SystemUpdate: at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:923)
07-20 02:00:33.252 2656 4583 I SystemUpdate: [Execution,ExecutionManager] Action pending executed for 0.01 seconds.
07-20 02:00:33.262 2656 4583 I SystemUpdate: [Control,InstallationControl] Installation progress updated to (0x017, -1.000).
07-20 02:00:33.300 2656 4583 I SystemUpdate: [Control,InstallationControl] Resume on reboot feature enabled: true.
07-20 02:00:33.381 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: Could not set socket write timeout: java.net.SocketException: Socket closed
07-20 02:00:33.381 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.Platform.setSocketWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):2)
07-20 02:00:33.381 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.ConscryptFileDescriptorSocket.setSoWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):0)
07-20 02:00:33.446 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: Could not set socket write timeout: java.net.SocketException: Socket closed
07-20 02:00:33.447 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.Platform.setSocketWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):2)
07-20 02:00:33.447 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.ConscryptFileDescriptorSocket.setSoWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):0)
07-20 02:00:33.595 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: Could not set socket write timeout: java.net.SocketException: Socket closed
07-20 02:00:33.596 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.Platform.setSocketWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):2)
07-20 02:00:33.596 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.ConscryptFileDescriptorSocket.setSoWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):0)
07-20 02:00:33.635 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: Could not set socket write timeout: java.net.SocketException: Socket closed
07-20 02:00:33.636 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.Platform.setSocketWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):2)
07-20 02:00:33.636 2656 2757 W Conscrypt: at com.google.android.gms.org.conscrypt.ConscryptFileDescriptorSocket.setSoWriteTimeout(:com.google.android.gms@222615037@22.26.15 (150400-461192076):0)