If I run essentially the same command, first with copy from local to remote, and then later with sync from local to remote, would that create any issues? Goal I guess would be to do a manual transfer, first… and then later potentially automate things without having to redo everything…
That will work fine and it is a good way to start. Note that sync deletes files in the destination which aren’t in the source so is potentially destructive - try with --dry-run first.