Should I update my old Mac to the latest version?

Question

macOS

On the hands of an old macbook 2012, 8GB of RAM and i7, now stands Sierra.

Officially, Big Sur is not updated, the ceiling is Catalina.

With Catalina, too, not everything is so simple, because. like they say it slows down with old pieces of iron.

Big Sur says you can also put on crutches, but is it worth it?

In general, I will be glad if I had experience with the OS on old poppies.

Now everything seems to be running on Sierra, but a lot of software (docker) asks to update the OS.

It seems you can not upgrade the OS down?

Answer 1

make a disk image and save to a separate disk.
roll fresh and test.
liked? Great!
did not like? rolled the image back.