Let me rephrase it. Everyone has their own opinions about what they feel is needed... etc. yada spam. There is a difference between needing to breathe, and "needing" to drink cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper with a hint of lime and a twist of orange. One you can't live with out, the other could substituted out for anything. Endurance, quite frankly, was not, literally, mandatory for a character to proceed from level 1 to level 50 in the game. Yes, it made things easier, and more efficient. But, it wasn't mandatory. At least, not before they made fitness inherent. Now, it's mandatory because it is forced on you, not because you couldn't take a character from level 1 to level 50 without it.
The only reason they made the fitness pool inherent was because 95% of the players always chose to get Stamina on every one of their characters. Not because the devs thought it was actually needed in order to level from 1 to 50.
Just because something is forced upon me, doesn't mean that I need it. It just means that I'm forced to have it. Much like the first power for every single secondary power-set in the game.