Yes and no.

An outdated Play Store can lead to:

In the fast-paced world of technology, mobile operating systems evolve rapidly. Today, we are on Android 14 and looking toward Android 15, but a significant number of users still rely on older devices running Android 5.1 Lollipop. Whether you are holding onto a beloved tablet, using a backup phone, or repurposing a device for a child or elderly relative, Android 5.1 remains a functional and capable OS.

Usually, the Google Play Store updates itself automatically in the background. However, on older devices like those running Android 5.1, this background update process often fails because the gap between the installed version and the current version is too wide. The internal update mechanism may simply give up.