You may want to suspend applying of updates while you're gaming, but that will get ugly to try and manage. There are also some semantics about disabling 'Automatic' updates versus 'Windows' updates. Perhaps a better idea would be to create a script/batch file to change the power plan before gaming (and maybe do some other stuff like pause anti-virus for X hours), and another one to change it back afterwards but again, Balanced will allow what you need.

The 'High Performance' power plan also doesn't matter much since 'Balanced' allows the OS to use up to 100% CPU if necessary, anyway, so I don't see a reason to change it. Mouse animations are probably the same deal since most games have their own cursor, anyway. Animations/visuals for Windows are a fairly outdated thing to worry about with modern hardware, and if you're in a full-screen game anyway they won't make a difference. I think 'Update drivers' and 'Manage Steam automatic updates' are the only two things to really consider here.

You will want to mess around with the speed settings for the pointer to reach a comfortable configuration. Choose Change the mouse pointer display or speed.Changing this option will make your mouse more accurate in games, particularly ones that require aiming like first-person shooters (FPS). Windows has a feature called mouse acceleration that causes your mouse to move not only based on physical movement detection and measurements but on speed, too. This will prevent Steam from updating games while you're playing. Uncheck Allow downloads during gameplay.Titles like Stellaris allow you to revert to older versions if you're not a fan of current changes. This relies on the game developer releasing specific versions and keeping them available on Steam. Opt-in to a specific version using the drop-down menu.

A new update could break things, even in a vanilla game, which is why some people hold off updating before others have reported everything to be OK. If you run a modded installation for, say, The Elder Scrolls Skyrim you will want to keep to a version you know works. Just like Windows, there are times when updates in Steam can really mess with your gaming experience.

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