Apply Figma library updates as they publish, or batch them at milestones?

Our team maintains a published Figma library of components, styles, and variables that dozens of product files consume. When a maintainer publishes changes, each consuming file shows an update-available badge, and applying the update is a per-file, manual action from the library update dialog. Figma offers no built-in schedule, auto-apply, or per-file version pinning, so the timing policy is entirely ours to define.

The constraint is a concrete one: we want files aligned with the design system, but structural publishes—renamed components, changed variant properties—can detach instances or drop overrides in files that are mid-design. Deferring updates protects that in-progress work, yet files drift from the published source of truth and the same component version renders differently across the team.

We are on a plan where branching is available, so isolating update adoption on a branch and merging back is an option, though merges touching the same components can conflict.

Given this, which policy have teams found sustainable: accept every publish as it lands, or batch updates at defined milestones? Does branching meaningfully reduce the override-loss risk when adopting structural changes? What signals should trigger an exception to a batching policy, such as a critical style fix?