There is an option in advanced setup to block ESET product from making automatic version upgrades, it's under Update > Profiles.
I had to find EIS version 16.1.14 elsewhere, since ESET themselves don't provide old versions, at least publicy. Of course I checked file signatures to make sure it's the official installer and not tampered.
I use interactive mode. I tried many things but I didn't take note, so to stop wasting time, I just downgraded the version altogether and now everything is working as intended.