To be clear about what is being proposed:
There is a preference setting:
http://damonlynch.net/rapid/documentation/#versioncheck
By default it is on.
If version checking is enabled, and a new version is detected, the program will only prompt to auto-update if it has been installed using pip. If it is installed in any other manner, the user will merely be prompted to open the program website, where they can learn more about the new release.
FWIW the installer script on my website will automatically uninstall distro packaged versions of Rapid Photo Downloader packages, including those in Debian.
In future, a PPA, a snap and if it can be made to work an appimage would be nice.
However, while I consider these user friendly features, my guess is that you prefer that Debian users install only Debian packages, and not be confused by other installation methods or possibilities. I imagine that’s the explanation behind the complete removal of the version check for VLC when running the Debian / Ubuntu distro package, for instance. I can see how that makes sense in several scenarios.
The upshot of all of this is that the changes to make Rapid Photo Downloader to conform to this relatively locked-down approach is that it requires changes in the user interface too, not just the code block you have identified. I note that the VLC distro package GUI has also had the version check stripped out.
I think in such a case, a patch that manipulates program logic is a poor way to implement this proposal. It would be a pain in the ass to maintain, and prone to breakage. Instead a value should be set in the file constansts.py, which Debian and other distros can “patch” to set to disable the version check. I will need to write the code to disable the version check logic in the UI as well as in the program logic.
If you agree with this approach, I can write it today, and release it as version 0.9.9. However, in exchange I’d like to see version 0.9.9 be packaged in time for its inclusion in Ubuntu 18.04.