TTIG and SX1261 not connecting + LoRaWAN design considerations

Indeed true for the uplink counter (see How much frame count deviation is allowed?), and it will also work for the downlink counter assuming there’s no replay attack between the restart and the first subsequent downlink. However, I guess you understand, some other changes in state might always need to be persisted between restarts, like updated network settings (including ADR) and pending confirmations.