Software update is required to connect to your iOS device

Is there any way to get around these, to not brick my device with resource intensive OS's? I mean I know the gap from iPhone XR and MBP 2011 is vast, and left that on Mavericks as I regretted upgrading from Lion. Also had a MBP 2014 but with only 120 gb storage.. Thank you very much. Learning a lot from all of you and hope to contribute more one day.