Only the hardware profile needs to precede the reimage, because it is the one change that touches boot: a kernel parameter and a module blacklist. Validating it while a known-good generation still exists means the reimage installs a configuration already proven on this hardware, where a freshly imaged machine has no rollback target. The housekeeping and commit-identity changes carry no boot risk and apply equally well after the wipe, so they no longer gate it. The case for reimaging soon rests on the machine holding almost nothing, and that weakens with every day of use.