I seemed to have no problem updating to 11.2.1 on my new Mac mini M1, until getting a panic "mvme_ppl: ..." the next morning while the new computer was sitting alone idle. It ran normally the rest of day, and before ending my day, I booted into safe mode for less than ten minutes. Later, I noticed from "About This Mac/System Report/Installations/" that macOS 11.2.1 was reported to have been installed late in the evening when I did the safe boot exercise. (Not in early morning when the install was actually done, and during that day, the high level "About This Mac" was indicating that I was running 11.2.1.)
It seems possible that the install was not fully completed, even though outward appearance would indicate otherwise (except for the panic shutdown).
I have been running very nicely for almost two days since the normal boot after trying the safe mode.
It has been mentioned on other threads that booting into safe mode for a few minutes may repair some issues; seems prudent to try if you have any issues with this update.
The details of both the panic and the curious install time of the macOS update have been reported to Apple.