Timeshift not working with rsync 3.2.7

A longtime user of UM, just updated from 18.04.5 to the latest 22.04, with a fresh install. Found a few annoyances, mostly minor and mostly resolved by searching around.

A remaining one is related - as per this topic - to an incompatibility between Timeshift (21.09.1) and rsync (3.2.7), both installed from the default distribution.

There's a github entry for Linux Mint on the same subject at https://github.com/linuxmint/timeshift/issues/152 and their proposed solution is to downgrade rsync to version 3.2.3, as per:

# apt remove timeshift rsync
# apt install rsync=3.2.3-8ubuntu3
# apt-mark hold rsync
# apt install timeshift

I'm inclined to go this way, BUT removing rsync brings away the ubuntu-standard metapackage as a dependency.

My questions are:

  1. is it safe from a general standpoint to remove the ubuntu-standard metapackage? If so, what will I miss?
  2. from what is known as now, is the updated version of Timeshift to be included in the next 22.04 point release?

Many thanks in advance
ric