It can be, but sometimes packages are removed from the official repos, but still available in AUR, only running yay -Syu
will install the AUR versions of dependencies that are no longer needed, and can leave you with a bunch of unnecessary packages from AUR.
If you run pacman -Syu
on its own the unnecessary dependencies will be removed and you won’t get the AUR versions, and then yay -Syu
will only update things you actually want from AUR.
I would imagine they mean something like jellyfin/plex, which don’t necessarily get you away from torrents. Unless you want to go the slightly more legal route of ripping DVDs and Blu-rays and re-encoding everything for yourself. I say “slightly more legal” because while you are legally allowed a backup or archival copy of your own media (in the US), you still usually have to violate the DMCA to break encryption so you can rip your archival copy.