Time Machine backup prior to Nuke n Pave?

[mrbigstuff]

I posted last week about an issue with I-net connectivity and some general funkiness with the OS. It would seem I got myself a virus somehow. Since I am not completely invested in this OS (10.13.6) and don't have many applications loaded anyhow, I thought the simplest thing would be to NnP so I can get back to 0.

But would backing up what files I do have play nicely with the reinstalled OS (once I do that)?

I am looking to save files, not applications, so how would this change my backup strategy?