Are Fallback Functions Still Considered a Necessary Component of Smart Contracts?

Fallback functions are not always necessary but serve important purposes. They are essential for contracts that need to receive Ether directly without a function call (using the receive() function) or for implementing proxy/upgradeable contract patterns.

In proxy contracts, the fallback function is used to delegate calls to a logic contract. However, for many simple contracts that do not need to receive raw Ether or act as a proxy, a fallback function is not required and can be omitted to reduce the attack surface.