Jc… you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to.
If what they did in D3 is any indications, there will be free pets drop in game, so you dont even have buy expensive editions, you will eventually get one soon or later.
At the beginning, I suspect pets will not have any functions as not everyone has one. Itd be paid to win, if they did. But once free pets are available in game, they’ll start adding things like auto pickup and salvage.