a clean install of everything is always the best option updates tend to be a bit of a dice roll as the which apps keep working and which hit issues a week later
That's the fault of the HDD or SSD in the laptop. Windows 11 installation, like all reading and writing of disks, is not any more particularly capable of damaging an HDD or SSD. The only way it could is if it constantly spun down and spun up an HDD, or intentionally wrote to the same sectors of an SSD hundreds of times, or sent destructive ATA commands to the disk. Windows installers don't do any of that, therefore this isn't relevant to the topic of being able to upgrade without data loss, as long as the HDD or SSD is in decent condition.
It you have an "older" version of Windows (like 10 or 8 etc.) you can always try to use the UPGRADE function at: Download Windows 11 This way you will keep all your programs, apps and drivers etc.
But remember that once you have upgraded, you should run Windows update manually so that the necessary drivers etc. gets updated.. An in Windows update/Advanced there is an option for you to select "optional updates", that you may use later on if some hardware shows issues..
THEN! IF you feel a need for it you may reinstall Windows by running tha RESET function that is built into Windows.. so that you may run windows in the way it is supposed to (read more here: HOW TO BEST SECURE MY PC! )
I have no idea why noone informed you about this earlier...