No need to stir the apple-sauce often. If you don't stir, till the very end, the chance of it burning is very little, because of the layer of water, I guess.
I tend to put a piece of a cinnamon stick in it too, during the cooking. And, at the end, I seldom ad sugar, I do ad lemon juice now and then, depending on the type of apple I used.
I mainly use apples that are on my fruit bowl, and should be eaten faster than is likely going to happen.
There is another reason for not adding sugar too soon. If you ad sugar right at the beginning, the apples don't fall apart that well. Wolfie can probably explain why that is. Maybe I should check one of his links on cooking about that.