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However, it does require an sftp and scp binary from OpenSSH, if these features are to be used.

The latest scp clients use the sftp server, but older implementations will need both to be accessible.

For a secure/minimal set I'd just avoid sftp and it's client-commanded resource management. Just use plain scp, the protocol is very simple.

Funnily enough OpenSSH are switching scp to use the SFTP protocol https://www.openssh.com/txt/release-8.8

You don't even need scp if you go for minimalism. ssh and cat work fine (add tar on top for multiple file transfer).