Due to the nature of mkinitcpio, your local config, and the proposed changes.. you were probably right to ask.
So I will try to go over these each ;
I do not know the exact importance of the inclusion of this module but as it refers to crypto and you seem to be using encryption (more on that coming up) I am inclined to think you should keep it.
There are differences in these examples here.
All the lines are commented out so its not really important .. but might as well bring in the new standard examples.
( Whats really happening: the microcode HOOK is introduced to the examples. )
Heres the fun part.
You mostly want the new version.
But it is conspicuously missing 3 things - your plymouth and encrypt and fsck.
That encrypt one is probably important if we again assume encryption.
But .. much like console for sd-vconsole .. the encypt HOOK does have a systemd replacement in sd-encrypt.
But then again it also works a little differently so you may wish to simply retain the encrypt HOOK.
Finally we have the fsck hook which is not required but, well, here is the Archwiki quoted:
As well as some minor re-ordering which should probably be followed.
And thats it.
So with the more conservative approach (retaining existing MODULE, as well as encrypt,plymouth,fsck HOOKS) the resulting file would look like this:
# vim:set ft=sh:
# MODULES
# The following modules are loaded before any boot hooks are
# run. Advanced users may wish to specify all system modules
# in this array. For instance:
# MODULES=(usbhid xhci_hcd)
MODULES=(crc32c)
# BINARIES
# This setting includes any additional binaries a given user may
# wish into the CPIO image. This is run last, so it may be used to
# override the actual binaries included by a given hook
# BINARIES are dependency parsed, so you may safely ignore libraries
BINARIES=()
# FILES
# This setting is similar to BINARIES above, however, files are added
# as-is and are not parsed in any way. This is useful for config files.
FILES=()
# HOOKS
# This is the most important setting in this file. The HOOKS control the
# modules and scripts added to the image, and what happens at boot time.
# Order is important, and it is recommended that you do not change the
# order in which HOOKS are added. Run 'mkinitcpio -H <hook name>' for
# help on a given hook.
# 'base' is _required_ unless you know precisely what you are doing.
# 'udev' is _required_ in order to automatically load modules
# 'filesystems' is _required_ unless you specify your fs modules in MODULES
# Examples:
## This setup specifies all modules in the MODULES setting above.
## No RAID, lvm2, or encrypted root is needed.
# HOOKS=(base)
#
## This setup will autodetect all modules for your system and should
## work as a sane default
# HOOKS=(base udev autodetect microcode modconf block filesystems fsck)
#
## This setup will generate a 'full' image which supports most systems.
## No autodetection is done.
# HOOKS=(base udev microcode modconf block filesystems fsck)
#
## This setup assembles a mdadm array with an encrypted root file system.
## Note: See 'mkinitcpio -H mdadm_udev' for more information on RAID devices.
# HOOKS=(base udev microcode modconf keyboard keymap consolefont block mdadm_udev encrypt filesystems fsck)
#
## This setup loads an lvm2 volume group.
# HOOKS=(base udev microcode modconf block lvm2 filesystems fsck)
#
## This will create a systemd based initramfs which loads an encrypted root filesystem.
# HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard sd-vconsole sd-encrypt block filesystems fsck)
#
## NOTE: If you have /usr on a separate partition, you MUST include the
# usr and fsck hooks.
HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap sd-vconsole block plymouth encrypt filesystems fsck)
# COMPRESSION
# Use this to compress the initramfs image. By default, zstd compression
# is used for Linux ≥ 5.9 and gzip compression is used for Linux < 5.9.
# Use 'cat' to create an uncompressed image.
#COMPRESSION="zstd"
#COMPRESSION="gzip"
#COMPRESSION="bzip2"
#COMPRESSION="lzma"
#COMPRESSION="xz"
#COMPRESSION="lzop"
#COMPRESSION="lz4"
# COMPRESSION_OPTIONS
# Additional options for the compressor
#COMPRESSION_OPTIONS=()
# MODULES_DECOMPRESS
# Decompress loadable kernel modules and their firmware during initramfs
# creation. Switch (yes/no).
# Enable to allow further decreasing image size when using high compression
# (e.g. xz -9e or zstd --long --ultra -22) at the expense of increased RAM usage
# at early boot.
# Note that any compressed files will be placed in the uncompressed early CPIO
# to avoid double compression.
#MODULES_DECOMPRESS="no"
PS.
If you are not familiar with it then the proper tool to handle pacnews is pacdiff.
To print existing ones;
pacdiff -o
To handle them (using sudoedit privleges as necessary);
pacdiff -s
If you do not have DIFFPROG set somewhere and therefor it defaults to vi comparison you can set the env var on the execution line;
DIFFPROG=meld pacdiff -s
Following the prompts to View (view is also ‘edit’ - then save and exit the comparison tool when done) and afterwards Remove the pacnew or Skip it to retain for later inspection.