It's obviously not necessary considering about 99% of vinyl mixes aren't in tune. Even if two records are in the same key, by the time you match the BPM on the two tracks they aren't in key anymore.
So yeah, If you are safely mixing outros to intros, percussion, jump cuts or minimal styles together, it's not necessary. If you are mixing vocals, instrumentals and melodies, doing mash ups or remixing on the fly it's going to help greatly. We all know how shitty something sounds when it's out of tune, so it's probably something you want to avoid.
I generally balance my sets between tracks that define the narrative I want to establish and harmonic mixing to establish flow. So it'll be a deep funky cut and I'll harmonically mix a few tracks to establish that vibe, if it's working on the floor I'll continue to sort of work within that realm. If my set needs more energy I'll pull out a track (regardless of key) to sort of pick things up and then vibe out with that for a few tracks before changing it up again, if necessary.
If you want a sample of it here is a little tid bit I took from one of my mixes.
Sorry if you don't like house/Disco, but you should be able to get the jist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jDW_F6uSgg
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