Why does Fedora need to restart the system to update?
Other distributions do not always require a restart to update.
Thanks.
Which ones?
It probably varies depending on what software or library is updated and what’s open. With kernel or Mesa it’s generally a good idea to reboot.
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i think you have to, in order to reload/load the modules
Hi Br1CB,
Mainly just good practice to reboot the system after an update. This ensures that there are no stale libraries in use after the update. As for things like the kernel and glibc related stuff, a reboot is required because you can’t just upgrade the kernel while it is in use 
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I review the updates and if anything beyond simple applications I will reboot, and I try to reboot at least once a week regardless. not always needed, but the system seems snappier when I do.
This is for a system in active desktop use, a pure server is slightly different, those should not be getting as many updates beyond libraries and kernel, so can be more judicious on rebooting
The OP didn’t mention about the update method, but I assume it is GNOME Software. If that’s the case, then the need to restart the system is rather specific to GNOME Software, than Fedora.
With dnf upgrades, restarting the system is left to the user to choose. It should be noted though that dnf also has the option of offline upgrades, in which case it acts similar to GNOME Software: downloading the update packages, then installing them in a minimal environment upon rebooting.
And some reasoning, from dnf5-offline’s man page:
Running a transaction in this stripped-down environment can be safer than running it when the system is booted normally since the transaction is less likely to interfere with running processes.
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You can do updates manually. Some things like kernel, drivers, firmware, and systemd need a restart. You can determine that by running sudo dnf needs-restarting -r after an update.
Note that some applications, like Firefox for example, can get corrupt user data if you update them via RPM while they are currently running.
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True - KDE will let you update with the reboot optional.