As it stands, I still currently have my old corrupt SD Card inside my Switch. Do I need to get rid of that first? I'd imagine so.
Definitely. If SD card is faulty, definitely replace it with a new legit card. Make sure to check whether it's legit or not with
h2testw. If not and only its data is corrupted, before you format it, check if there are any backups from certain apps on it and copy those to your PC before you format your SD card (I'd suggest checking it with h2testw as well, to make sure it's still working properly). I'm not sure if you e.g. blanked your prodinfo in the past with Incognito_RCM or similar? You could have prodinfo_sysNAND.bin or similar on your SD card if you ever did.
After that, should I go ahead and add the Hekate bootloader folder to the root of my new SD Card in addition to the Nyx.reg file on the Hekate Github page before repeating the boot process in my previous post?
You can backup your original bootloader folder (just in case you need it) and delete it, and get the latest Hekate & Nyx on your SD card afterwards. Updating Hekate on payloader isn't enough.
How up to date is the
NH Switch Guide?
It's up-to-date, mainly because it links to the latest versions of the required apps in the SD Preparation section.
For game backups to work, you'll need
the latest sigpatches (firmware 17.0.1 is also supported).
Optionally, you can get
sys-patch module as well. Unfortunately, it's currently discontinued due to it being taken down by Nintendo, but it doesn't hurt to have it around, alongside sigpatches. You can also install
Tesla +
nx-ovlloader as that will allow you to see whether sys-patch is working properly, after you press
L +
D-pad Down +
R (Stick) combo, select
sys-patch, followed by
Log. It should say
Patched (if it's green, it's good; if it's orange, it means that it's already patched with sigpatches). Having both sigpatches and sys-patch at the same time should cause no conflict at all.
Good luck with your Switch!