I don't have a dummy device. Do I really need to update kexts and OC to install Monterey 12.7.3?

Hi. Last year I made my first Hackintosh. A ThinkPad E460 (I'm arguably the first to Hackintosh that model) with a Skylake processor (which means I'm stuck in Monterey unless I spoof something, but I don't think that's worth it). I tried before to update to 12.7.1, restarted like 4 times and the macOS installer still speared on my OpenCore boot menu. So I gave up on installing the security patch. I use OC 0.9.5, but the only external device I have available is the USB I used to install macOS, so I don't really want to risk it; I've been hesitant to update my kexts for the same reason. And as a note that could be useful to know, I run macOS from an external hard drive. My current storage space didn't allow me to install it on my internal SSD (I still needed to be able to run Windows on it). Should I try to update without a dummy? Do I really need to update OpenCore to 0.9.7? How am I supposed what to do with the new config.plist if the Dortania Guide is still stuck for 0.9.1 (luckily worked with 0.9.5)? And most importantly, should I update to Monterey 12.7.3?