Does gateway upgrading work in 1.6.x?

Does splitting an IstioOperator manifest in order to separate control-plane configuration from gateway configuration, as described in [https://istio.io/latest/docs/setup/upgrade/gateways/](https://Managing Gateways with Multiple Revisions [experimental]), work in 1.6.x?

(That page does say:

This feature is actively in development and is considered pre-alpha .

but it’s not clear what goes on behind the scenes, and what portion might work on 1.6.x.)

Thanks.

I believe this is available in 1.8+ however its possible to do this in previous versions by deploying multiple istiooperators (one to deploy istio, n to deploy gateways)