Is this the best Upgrade method?

I am currently running opencart 1.5.5.1 but I want to upgrade to 3. Having read a lot of threads on here about upgrading to 3 it seems it is VERY problematic.
I would happily do a clean install and start from scratch but as I have over 2000 products on my current store I am loathe t if I dont have to. On top of that though I really want to try and keep my customer data (past orders, reward points,etc)
I am not bothered about keeping any themes or the like and the one or two customisations I can live without.

It seems that an alternative to a clean install and losing everything is to upgrade to 2.3 then onto 3. My question is will doing it this way maintain my customer and product data? Or is it possible to to a clean install to 3 and transfer my data over from my current DB?

I understand most options are beset with problems!

Well, a bunch of commercial Applications exist already, to upgrade the Database Content
to later OC Versions, everything else cannot be upgraded anyway, it's as easy as that.
Ernie
https://www.opencart.com/index.php?rout ... ch=Upgrade