To answer your tl:dr question, yes. At the very least go ahead and update your gateway files to 3.7.1 (do NOT grab the 4.0 beta files at this time). Depending on how old your current version of gateway is, you MIGHT be prompted to update the red card as well. Just in case, go ahead and place the updated launcher.dat file on the sd card you use in for the .3ds files. Its small and won't negatively impact you in any way, plus it saves a few seconds/minutes of time in the event you are prompted to update the card itself. Once you have the 3.7.1 files and are inside your emunand, go ahead and update it to 11.0.
As for the other hacks... A9LH really is the best solution, and if you are capable of following detailed instructions then following Plailect's guide (
here) will get you there with almost no chance of a brick. The only real downside (as far as using GW with A9LH) is concerned is that Plailect's guide will end with you having a hacked, updated sysnand and no emunand. This is a problem if you only plan to use GW, as GW does not allow you to properly update sysnand in this situation (its why they recommend using emunand). If you ask around on the forums here, I'm sure you can find instructions on how to end up with A9LH on a 9.2 sysnand and updated emunand. Just whatever you do, do NOT use Gateway's A9LH installer.
If A9LH seems to confusing or daunting to you (and despite what many people here seem to think, it is definitely not for everyone) then there are still probably other easier entry points for you (the best being MenuHax), but without more info from you it is a bit hard to make a recommendation. Specifically I would need to know whether you have a N3DS or O3DS. Would help to know your current entry point for loading Gateway as well.