Is the RT kernel absolutely necessary when running Klipper on PandaPi 2.9?

[padcom]

I am wondering if it is absolutely necessary to run the real-time Linux kernel when the communication with stepper motors is done via the on-board microcontroller (STM32)? If not, is it possible to use a newer base image instead of the ancient one provided by PandaPi?

Flashing could be a problem, but maybe there is a repo I could clone to have the phtml to be able to flash klipper?

For that matter, what is needed to start the flashing process? I can see the sb utility is being used to send the firmware over ttyAMA0. Is the ymode0 enough to get the process started (besides stopping the klipper service of course?)