As a rule of thumb, you don't need the MP. It stands for "meta package" and has no content, its only purpose is to pull in other packages as its dependencies. If you do not want all the other packages, having an MP is actually more of a nuisance than help.

Having said that, apt-vet dist-upgrade is generally not a good idea. At least on Fremantle, but I would be very surprised if it were any different on Harmattan.