Its a payment platform and one of the earliest on the internet... Way back when it was almost a necessary thing. Many sites would accept or credit paypal directly..
Did you HAVE to have one, no, but if you didn’t want to put your credit card info into 1000 different web sites PP was the only option... and back in the late 80s many sites didn’t even take credit card directly Paypal ONLY was not uncommon.
In the 24 years since, it’s a whole different game. Once they split from EBAY especially there is little need for them.
I still used them simply because I didn’t like entering my payment information every time I bought something... but its nowhere near the “required” service it used to be...
The company even thinking it was a good idea to “fine” folks for saying things they don’t like... that was the final straw.
I would advise everyone to get off that platform ASAP... any company that thinks their role is to enforce “thought” and “speech” belongs in Communist China, not in the US...
That should be the late 90s.. when Paypal started...