Sorry for delay.
What do you mean with "upstream"? I found at least 3 ways to build:
* mainline (from uboot repos)
* repos from nxp (done as described in that docu inside)
* repos from nxp as described in your mentioned porting guide).
I am not really clear why there are so different ways. Is it just to add the HDMI blob?
What I found is missed in this is to add BINMAN to the target. Other imx8mp targets have that inside, EVK not. With that included it compiles a flash.bin. But will try that way from porting guide too. Can I just skip the HDMI step if I don't use it?