iATKOS | United Kingdom

Hey folks,
This kills me to have to ask since I usually frown at people too lazy to google their basic questions, but I'm lost. I have a Hackintosh, but I didn't build it so I'm not exactly sure what/how it was done.
It's a dual boot-- OS Catalina 10.15.7 + Windows 10 ... it's been solid but I've never run a single update in fear of messing things up.

Can anyone help me with understanding the risks of allowing updates? be it security patches or even moving up to the latest OS? I haven't updated opencore ever in 2 years now (its still v0.6.3), i'm assuming that is the software that makes OS play nicely with my PC parts?

I use this machine for my work and some other important creative projects so I can't really afford any downtime. But in theory is the update process as simple as just "updating the OS" as some users have posted? or do i update -- and then have to install opencore again + any steps Im unaware of?

Another question is -- am I missing out from not updating opencore in my current setup?

Thanks so much to anyone taking the time to answer.