In case this helps anyone else, I plowed forward!
Some of this might have been overkill but I didn't want to take any chances: (starting point was a Switch on 5.1 OFW, SX OS 1.?)
1) Grabbed the latest SDFiles
2) Put the latest hbmenu.nro in the root of my exFat formatted SD card
3) Updated SX OS to 2.2.1 Beta
4) I heard that Nintendo might have started to let people (even super banned folks like me) update to 6.1.0 officially. So, I unblocked my Switch in my router and tried to update officially and.......... no luck. I'm super ultra mega banned I guess?!
5) Booted in SX OS CFW and went into the Album and started the HBMenu and then launched ChoiDujourNX from there.
6) Navigated to the folder that had the 6.1.0 firmware and selected it
7) I picked the "6.1.0 (exFat)" option and DID NOT enable AutoRCM. I don't care about burning fuses.
8) After the update was finished, I ignored the warning about doing something to block the controller firmware update and let the system reboot into OFW.
9) My Switched booted into 6.1.0 and updated the left and right joycon firmware. (I have a 2nd set of joycon controllers so I'm guessing if I ever hook them in there, they'll get updated too? Who cares.)
10) Once 6.1.0 was all done and completed, I rebooted into SX OS 2.2.1 Beta and tried some games I purchased from eShop and some NSP installed games. Everything worked perfectly! No need to 'phone home' or anything!