No, TLP isn't necessary in this case. Most of the power-related settings that it manages are irrelevant for my setup:

• charging thresholds and power profiles for AC/battery - since it's not a laptop and doesn't have a battery.
• no need to spin down disk drives - as there are no platter drives
• no need to regulate fan speed - since there are no fans

etc, etc.

Other settings, like turning off the Bluetooth adapter or WiFi, can be managed without the need for such a tool (which has by the way tons of unneeded dependencies)

But of course, I bet there is room for further optimization (I actually didn't bother to turn off radios, etc.) However, my goal wasn't to push it to the limits.
I achieved this setup with minimal effort and tweaking.

The main point is: Hive is awesome.
It's efficient and effective even without extensive customization or optimization.

:-)