I agree with you.  I can only go with my own experience however in that most modern BIOS/UEFI updates are self executable.  I will say that if you click on the EXE file and all it does is unpack a bios file and a readme, then you will have to get a bootable flash drive.  You can click here for a Google search on bootable flash drives.
sorry this is all such old stuff, but that's how life is sometimes... so, I'm trying to apply the newest (and probably last) BIOS update for my trusty OptiPlex 780 SFF, but the new version isn't a flash file - it's download, put on a 'bootable' disk, and run from there ... problem is there's no 'bootable system disk' for windows 7...   that's problem # 1. problem # 2 is, even if I wanted to, how could I make a bootable disk ?  I even went so far as to buy one that has a "access system prompt" that very politely drops me as x:\  - in some variation of Linux which just happens to be incompatible with the BIOS / windows 7 entirely. so, i'll give a big fat cigar to whomever can solve this one - I sure can't...... thanks, tool_tip
BIOS A15 NOT HAPPENING ! ! !