HOLDLOCK required in MERGE with UPDATE

Within a .NET 6 application the EntityFramework is used to keep track of entities and to update related fields. To improve bulk updates, the EfCore.BulkExtensions package has been added. During a .BulkUpdate a SQL statement is generated and executed (by the described package). I noticed the WITH (HOLDLOCK) part. I've read some documentation about the hint and possible race conditions, but do they occur in a MERGE with only the UPDATE command? In short, is this WITH (HOLDLOCK) hint necessary in case the MERGE statement only includes an UPDATE command or can it safely be removed? Sample query: MERGE TargetProducts WITH (HOLDLOCK) AS Target USING SourceProducts AS Source ON Source.ProductID = Target.ProductID WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET Target.ProductName = Source.ProductName, Target.Price = Source.Price;