Yes, that was what I did too and it worked. The older OS didn't support the FreeSync graphics acceleration built into the monitor was the one issue I identified. It may have been this or something else different in the OS. It was a series of issues that prevented me from doing the update immediately. Slower wifi, clearing the hard drive, getting my daughter her new computer since this one was hers, and taking "ownership" of it. I couldn't do anything as long as she was still the "owner" of the computer.

All is working great now, except that screen is still cracked. The Dell monitor is really nice though as a replacement.

And if you think the M1 MBA is a great computer, you should try the M2 version. I found one for my daughter and I didn't want to give it to her it was so nice. She noticed the difference immediately. They aren't that expensive either. And either the M1 or M2 makes my 27" iMac feel slow, and this iMac was blazing fast when I got it.