I just gave it a try and now apt is installing a bunch of new kernel .img files. So for me, yes, this seemed to be required before 64bit kernels were installed.

I just gave it a try and now apt is installing a bunch of new kernel .img files. So for me, yes, this seemed to be required before 64bit kernels were installed. I'm feeling surprised. I'm 40% of the way through the install and hoping it reboots okay in the end. Edit: to be more clear, I also run 'apt update' afterwards