That seems a bit rough, why wouldn't sysupgrade perform these steps automatically? (Asking for a confirmation if the step is potentially dangerous)
The post install check and fix seem quite automatisable, as well as using the right version in the repository.
Is it intentional or just something that has not been smoothed yet?
(As someone with a mainstream Linux distro background interested in trying netbsd)
I think main reason is sysupgrade script is not much focused way of upgrades in NetBSD. Many devs I heard just to extract required upgrades over running OS or use "sysint" maybe things will change as more users are showing interest in NetBSD now due to anti AI policy