A: Yes, the manual installation process described here will replace your current Play Store with the version you downloaded, effectively updating it. Alternatively, you can go to Settings > Apps > Google Play Store to check your version and see if updates are pending.
Not every Play Store APK works on every Android version. Android 8.1.0 uses specific API level 27. If you download a Play Store APK designed for Android 10+ (API 29), it may crash or fail to install.
Android 8.1.0 Oreo, released by Google in late 2017, is an older but highly stable version of the Android operating system. Because it is a legacy version, you cannot simply download the latest cutting-edge version of the Google Play Store APK.