diff --git a/staging/operator-lifecycle-manager/test/e2e/downstream_csv_namespace_labeler_plugin_test.go b/staging/operator-lifecycle-manager/test/e2e/downstream_csv_namespace_labeler_plugin_test.go
index c9ee8733ea..08700c5974 100644
--- a/staging/operator-lifecycle-manager/test/e2e/downstream_csv_namespace_labeler_plugin_test.go
+++ b/staging/operator-lifecycle-manager/test/e2e/downstream_csv_namespace_labeler_plugin_test.go
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ package e2e
 
 import (
 	"context"
-
 	"github.com/blang/semver/v4"
 	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
 	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
@@ -88,11 +87,18 @@ var _ = Describe("CSV Namespace Labeler Plugin", func() {
 		}).Should(HaveKeyWithValue(plugins.NamespaceLabelSyncerLabelKey, "true"))
 
 		// delete label
-		ns := &v1.Namespace{}
-		Expect(determinedE2eClient.Get(context.Background(), k8scontrollerclient.ObjectKeyFromObject(&testNamespace), ns)).To(Succeed())
-		nsCopy := ns.DeepCopy()
-		delete(nsCopy.Annotations, plugins.NamespaceLabelSyncerLabelKey)
-		Expect(determinedE2eClient.Update(context.Background(), nsCopy)).To(Succeed())
+		// NOTE: not using the determined client here because it shouldn't be used for update operations due to
+		// race conditions (the updated resource could change b/w 'get' and 'update' operations
+		c := ctx.Ctx().E2EClient()
+		Eventually(func() error {
+			ns := &v1.Namespace{}
+			if err := c.Get(context.Background(), k8scontrollerclient.ObjectKeyFromObject(&testNamespace), ns); err != nil {
+				return err
+			}
+			nsCopy := ns.DeepCopy()
+			delete(nsCopy.Annotations, plugins.NamespaceLabelSyncerLabelKey)
+			return c.Update(context.Background(), nsCopy)
+		}).Should(BeNil())
 
 		// namespace should be labeled
 		Eventually(func() (map[string]string, error) {
diff --git a/staging/operator-lifecycle-manager/test/e2e/util.go b/staging/operator-lifecycle-manager/test/e2e/util.go
index 2c970addc5..642601e56a 100644
--- a/staging/operator-lifecycle-manager/test/e2e/util.go
+++ b/staging/operator-lifecycle-manager/test/e2e/util.go
@@ -1068,7 +1068,7 @@ func HaveMessage(goal string) gtypes.GomegaMatcher {
 func SetupGeneratedTestNamespaceWithOperatorGroup(name string, og operatorsv1.OperatorGroup) corev1.Namespace {
 	ns := corev1.Namespace{
 		ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
-			Name: name,
+			Name:   name,
 			Labels: map[string]string{},
 		},
 	}
diff --git a/staging/operator-lifecycle-manager/test/e2e/util/e2e_determined_client.go b/staging/operator-lifecycle-manager/test/e2e/util/e2e_determined_client.go
index f93df8cb95..03313ec817 100644
--- a/staging/operator-lifecycle-manager/test/e2e/util/e2e_determined_client.go
+++ b/staging/operator-lifecycle-manager/test/e2e/util/e2e_determined_client.go
@@ -28,6 +28,11 @@ func (m *DeterminedE2EClient) Create(context context.Context, obj k8scontrollerc
 	return nil
 }
 
+// Update retries update operation until success or timeout
+//
+// Deprecation: do not use this method as it's not resilient to the case where the resource has changed out of band
+// it will conflict until it times out.
+// There's no priority to fix this client implementation - please use regular client instead
 func (m *DeterminedE2EClient) Update(context context.Context, obj k8scontrollerclient.Object, options ...k8scontrollerclient.UpdateOption) error {
 	m.keepTrying(func() error {
 		return m.E2EKubeClient.Update(context, obj, options...)