Can I skip 2.4.6 and go straight from 2.4.5 to 2.4.9?

Yes, Magento upgrades are cumulative. You can composer update from 2.4.5 to 2.4.9 in a single run; all the intervening data patches execute in order during setup:upgrade. Adobe explicitly supports skipping minor versions.

What you can’t skip:

• The deprecation work from each intervening version. 2.4.6 introduced the OpenSearch requirement (Elasticsearch removed), 2.4.7 deprecated Knockout components, 2.4.8 bumped to PHP 8.3. All of those land on you at once if you skip.
• The dependency cascade. Composer will resolve to the latest compatible versions of every dependency at once. If you have third-party extensions with tight constraints, this can fail spectacularly, the resolution might find no compatible combination.
• The UAT cycle. Skipping versions doesn’t reduce UAT, it concentrates it.

Rule of thumb by version distance:

• 2.4.6 → 2.4.9 or 2.4.7 → 2.4.9: direct jump, single composer run.
• 2.4.4/2.4.5 → 2.4.9: direct works, but add 50% extra UAT time.
• 2.4.0-2.4.3 → 2.4.9: stop at 2.4.4 or 2.4.6 first.
• 2.3.x → 2.4.9: always two-hop via 2.4.4.