Need to recreate DLs/contacts in O365 after migration before replacing on-premises Exchange servers?

My guess on this is "no" because the DLs objects are in AD. 

We have a 2012R2 domain with Exchange 2010 and are just finishing up an Exchange migration to O365.  We are having issues users managing distribution lists through Outlook and for that I need to migrate those to O365.  I see a script that does those 1 at a time, but do I need to migrate all DLs/mail contacts to O365 before replacing our Exchange cluster with a new 2016 Exchange server using the HCW?  I am guessing those objects will be fine since they are still contained in AD and sync to o365? 

We do not want to upgrade the DLs to Office365 groups as I am reading about some corporate people not liking them for some reason

Thanks,

Dave