Needs? No. Wants? Absolutely.

Many people generally don't like getting into things(usually) without feeling informed on the topic. Many people won't just take what they're told as true(thankfully), they'd like to find out for themselves. This information gives the basics and the start of the decision making process.

If some don't get that information then they'll simply give up before beginning.

The closest thing to a valid history of the early days of the industry that I've been able to find was on pualingo. I'm not sure which company owns that site though, it feels MM bias and misses out a good amount of what I mentioned here. Wikipedia is also incredibly scarce on information, Mystery's article has zero mention of Project Hollywood for example which was in a way a joint headquarters of multiple teachers and the center of everything, for a little while.