Wow! Thank you.
I’m unclear on one thing: do I need the Ethernet switch if I’m just running just the one connection from the downstairs router to the upstairs one?
Technically, no. It is possible to use a female-female connector designed for Ethernet extension.
Use of a small unmanaged Ethernet switch as a network hub provides some future-proofing and also provides a test point for debugging any connectivity problems. My favorite small switch is the Netgear GS105NA which has metal case and appears to dissipate heat better than plastic cased devices. It can be found online for less than US$30.
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Not necessarily, but it is probably a good idea.
If, in your wiring panel, you’ve got cables from all the rooms with individual RJ-45 connectors on each one, then you could just locate the two you need and connect them to each other, as @james.cutler described.
If the cables all terminate on a patch panel (for example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08G5B9PB6), then you could connect the two ports you need with a short cable. (This is why they sell 6" and 12" cables - so you can patch ports without making a tangled mess of cables.)
But switches are really cheap these days. You can get a small (5-8 port) GigE switch for under $20. If you use one, then you can add additional routers/mesh nodes to other rooms, or just have jacks for wired network connections. This may be useful for devices that won’t be moving about your home (desktop computers, smart TVs, large game consoles, etc.)
And if you want to get fancy, depending on who makes your wiring panel, you might even be able to get an Ethernet switch that mounts inside the panel, for a very clean look. For example, this one is designed to mount in Legrand On-Q panels.
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Thank you, David…but it’s simpler than that, I think, no switch panel. Our previous owner (around 2000) put in a Ethernet socket in the basement, right near where the Xfinity cable comes in, so it’s close to our router, and as far as I can tell, he put in one on the floor above (which is in the living room and pretty much the middle of the house) and just dropped a cable down to the one below.
At the moment, my RE200 seems to be behaving adequately, but there may be an upstairs router in my near future.
It’s a bit more sophisticated than what I did in our old house: my wife and I used two basement bedrooms as our offices, with a laundry room in between. I had my Kaypro in mine, she had her Mac SE in hers, and I ran a RS-232 between the rooms, through the laundry, so we could share files. That took a lot of small-scale soldering on each end of the cable! [She now makes baskets, and all those little wires ended up as part of a really fancy basket.]
Great group of helpers here, thank you! I’m glad I’m a TidBits subscriber.
Then your job is even easier. If you just have two jacks that are directly connected, just plug each device into one and you’re done.
Interestingly, this is what I did on my previous home. When we finished the basement and I relocated my office to that location, the Wi-Fi no longer reached the entire house, so I fished a single wire to put a jack in the living room, where I placed an access point. I guess I’m not the only person who does things like this 
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It’s worth making sure that you’re installing firmware updates for your Wi-Fi router.
Thanks, @ace. I hadn’t been, and now I have. I suppose I should add checking for new firmware to my weekly tasks.
I got a warning not to power off the router during installation of new firmware. Fine. I also got a warning not to operate the router during installation of new firmware. What does that mean? I have a (small but nonzero) number of devices connected, and any of them could decide to do something that the manufacturer might consider to be operating the router. Am I supposed to turn off Wi-Fi on every device before I install new firmware?
Also, in the unlikely event that the new firmware fouled up the router, what is my recourse? Can firmware be rolled back? Should I download update files rather than clicking Install?
Am I overthinking this? Thanks for any guidance.