When I start Add/Remove Software (Pamac), search for an app, and try to install it, Pamac installs all the available updates with it. Manually marking each of them “Ignore” and then later un-ignore to update them does not seem an ideal way. I tried unchecking “Check for updates” in the Preferences, but that completely disabled any update feature.
So, does Pamac currently have a way to disable automatic installation of other, unrelated packages and install only the packages that I am trying to install, just like pacman -S <package name>?
…which is what it is supposed to do. Avoid partial updates, this will break your system.
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It does. Read the man page, it will tell you how to do this.
However, it is highly discouraged.
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Yes. In Preferences → Advanced → Do not check for updates when installing
But do realise that with such setting - if <pkgname>-<pkgver>-<pkgrel>.pkg.tar.zst has been removed then - because your metadata does not match the mirror - you will get a 404 - file not found.
This leads to - for the inexperienced user - confusion and thoughts that there is something wrong - and thus default is to check for updates.
The fact that you have to ask - indicates that are not yet KingOfManjaro as you do not fully understand the implications of what you want to do.
Oh - no problem - I just use -Sy <pkgname> - I get the new metadata and all is dandy.
No - don’t ever do that as this may lead to a partially synced system - and that is unsupported.
So - unless you really know what you are doing - you should always use -Syu <pkgname>.
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There are many ways to break your system.
You might see it as an inconvenience to be prompted to install 2GiB of packages when you only wanted to install a 120kb package via Pamac…
However, Manjaro might find it inconvenient that you want to install one new package on your outdated system.
This is a rolling distribution - and already, we have many criticisms from folks who had issues with - for example - AUR packages which are updated ahead of Manjaro (delayed Arch effect) which leads to a whole lot of FUD in all kinds of other issues.
The upside is that, unlike when I used Debian in the past, I haven’t seen ‘broken’ or ‘held back’ or otherwise mucked up package problems which take a while to figure out and repair.
So please, stop the whining and get your updates 
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…and you’ve certainly been known to prove that fact.
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Sure, but not through skipping updates.
If you don’t break it, you’re just not trying hard enough.
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Yes, yes, and as someone once said; “It’s human to err”…
So...
err…
This approach is asking for trouble
If you keep shouting loud enough, you might get what you want.
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