This came up in #3029107: Drush updb doesn't work with latest version of Lightning Media. → but it seems to me this is a general problem.
Over on that issue, we have a hook_update_N() that is installing a new module.
On my system, I happened to have a missing module, a completely unrelated custom module I'd built in a sandbox branch, installed, and then switched branches without uninstalling (oops!).
The update hook crashed with 'The module foo does not exist.'
The site was then left in an unstable state: the new module that hook_update_N() wanted to enable was enabled, but its install configuration was missing.
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It's likely this issue predates Contrib.social: some issue and comment data are missing.
This seems like a situation that should be handled in the custom hook. If something goes wrong during the update/install process that process should be rolled back. Ie, the module that is being installed should then be uninstalled. Unless I'm missing something.