Maybe that is true for latest version, but I am hearing complains from other people that apps for other coins increased a lot in size, for example BCH shitcoin app increased around 15 to 20 times.
I have never used any of those Bitcoin-dependent apps on my Ledger, so I don't know what size they were in the past. I think they should be pretty small though, like a few kbs only because they take most of the code from the Bitcoin app. Looking at the app sizes for BCH or DOGE right now, I can see they are 36 kb. Seems pretty big. So I guess that information you got was correct.
Still, I have never seen any logic complaining about the size of an app or a wallet and the data that comes with it. Do these people expect new features and improvements and at the same time decreasing the app sizes? Doesn't really work. What would they say if they looked at the size of the bitcoin blockchain today compared to what it was 10 years ago?
I don't if it is somehow possible to check size of all apps and change before update, without installing and testing them individually.
Yeah, that's possible. You can do that by accessing the manager, called My Ledger in Ledger Live. It shows you the apps you have installed, the versions, and app sizes. If there is an update, you can see the new version number and new size after installation.