Parallel Routes Are Optional

Yes, Parallel Routes are required any time multiple components appear on the same page

No — Parallel Routes exist specifically for rendering multiple independently-routable segments with their own loading/error/navigation state; simply importing both components into one page file is simpler and sufficient here

Yes, because without Parallel Routes the two components will always re-render each other on state changes

No — Parallel Routes were removed in favor of Server Components and are no longer valid to use