It is quite useful, but not required, no. In this case, do you really need this renaming that Templater does?
Then again, I think Bryan Jenks’ system with symbols and such is perhaps a bit involved to start with. But what exactly isn’t working for you? That screenshot looks fine, except for the unresolved Templater code I addressed above. In case you’re not aware, all the callouts are closed, you need to click to expand them and see the contents.
To do a minimalist start, just get to know the basics by reading the Zotero Integration docs and start there. Adopting someone else’s system is unlikely to be or feel minimalistic. But inspiration is always welcome, so check out this thread with template examples: