For reference, the mediawiki manual (here and here) mentions it's a mandatory step of upgrades:
Also mentions that there's also a GUI-based web updater you can use directly from the wiki, if you find it easier: https://hazeron.com/mediawiki-1.41.0/mw-.../index.php
Quote:You should run update.php after each upgrade of MediaWiki or after the update or install of an extension that requires a schema update.
Also mentions that there's also a GUI-based web updater you can use directly from the wiki, if you find it easier: https://hazeron.com/mediawiki-1.41.0/mw-.../index.php
What even