Can't update app in /Apps; use ~/Apps instead?

The Minecraft Launcher tries to update /Applications/Minecraft.app, which works fine in typical circumstances, but fails in more restrictive environments. When in a multi-user lab with network logins, the Launcher updates are now failing when trying to create/unpack/move the new game elements, presumably due to priv blockages.

Any chance the game could intelligently use the ~/Applications dir for temp & update files, when restrictions cause failures, instead of the main /Applications root?