[trilinearnz]

I agree with this. The OP is demonstrating a level of conscientiousness, professionalism and self-agency that a lot of companies would like from their developers who only do what they are told to do. See: Theory X and Theory Y management (don't want to work vs. want to work).

However my only addition to what the poster above mentioned, is be wary of the perils of the consequences of continually updating dependencies as this can be a never-ending spiral. If your organisation lacks the labour to maintain projects properly, your efforts may well be more sensibly allocated towards the greenfields areas you are being asked to focus on.