No link recomendado por @ fixi7 no primeiro comentário, encontrei a solução para o meu problema (parece funcionar), ou seja: sudo systemctl edit apt-daily.timer
e cole o seguinte texto na janela do editor:
# apt-daily timer configuration override
[Timer]
OnBootSec=15min
OnUnitActiveSec=1d
AccuracySec=1h
RandomizedDelaySec=30min
Agora, a saída de $ systemd-analyze time && systemd-analyze blame
é:
Startup finished in 3.454s (kernel) + 27.151s (userspace) = 30.605s
15.729s dev-sda4.device
11.691s systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
10.565s systemd-sysctl.service
5.548s udisks2.service
5.384s NetworkManager-wait-online.service
4.860s snapd.service
3.605s console-setup.service
2.556s gpu-manager.service
2.027s ModemManager.service
1.996s lightdm.service
1.982s accounts-daemon.service
1.817s apparmor.service
1.660s iio-sensor-proxy.service
1.416s systemd-rfkill.service
1.371s thermald.service
1.240s keyboard-setup.service
1.183s systemd-modules-load.service
979ms apt-daily.service
924ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
911ms systemd-journald.service
818ms dev-loop0.device
734ms irqbalance.service
606ms avahi-daemon.service
O tempo de inicialização é consideravelmente reduzido.