The water is necessary plus the faith. We agree to disagree, sort of - the water is the created (look at Genesis) method that the Lord uses. Baptism is a must to get into the Kingdom - Faith + water- Faith alone won’t do it - Why? Because we are flesh and not spirit alone - God made us flesh and we need an actual element (Genesis again) If we were purely spiritual beings - angels, we would not need the actual water.
No, it is not necessary, and is not taught in any passage you put forth.
FAITH is entrusting ourselves to HIS finished work. When we do that, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ. His righteousness is imputed to us. His life is now in us.
THAT life of Christ WILL result in good works, just as an apple tree produces apples as the sap flows through it. One of these works is to obey His command to become baptized. It symbolizes what God has done in our lives and testifies to the world.
I don't think most here would downplay baptism. Where we probably disagree is the scriptural evidence is those who believe, have faith get down in the water. The water does not evoke the person to believe, but the believer...faith in action goes in the water to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
It seems to be a problem with some separating the two faith and baptism, when for the NT church, believers were baptized and therefore you cannot separate the belief from the action. That's how I see it played out in Acts several times. People who believed were baptized. IMHO, you cannot separate the two-faith and baptism, because one (faith) leads to the other (baptism).