Is it safe to update WP plugins by replacing plugin files inside the wp-content/plugins directory with new ones, and not using admin panel or wp-cli at all?
What I am wondering, if there are some database migrations that plugin wants to do for its new version, are these changes made somehow in this case that I only replace the files in the plugins directory?
My scenario here is a Docker image that contains all WP core files, theme and plugins baked in, and updates to core, plugins and theme are made locally to the image, which is then replaced in the production environment in AWS.
Not recommended as this way you bypass any database updates or migrations the plugin may require