Raspbery Pi OS Lite stuck

Except... I've noticed that the kernel is stuck on 6.1.x from 2023 and
whilst there are updates for the components when I run the regular "sudo
apt update / sudo apt upgrade" the kernel doesn't get touched. Looking
on the PiOS website it's says Pi OS lite 32bit is on kernel 6.6.

So my question is whether there is some way with apt update/upgrade to
get the kernel updated? Or I am facing (what I expect to the case) that
I need to do a clean install of the latest image and re-apply my SDcard
wear reducing mods?

Ideas?

The raspberry pi website suggests that you use "full-upgrade" each time
instead of "upgrade."  My kernel would sometimes be listed as "held back"
if I only used "upgrade."  "full-upgrade" seems to cause it to be updated
when one is available.


 * SLMR 2.1a * */  <==-- Tribble with a lightsaber