I wouldnt say mandatory. There is a spot on the front of the hood liner where you could drill holes, and use the hoodliner for air baffle and run tubes into engine compartment, and or cut holes on back side of hood, and put some frogskin covers on or something along those lines. I want to see what an xscream type pole looks like on one. Another option would be to use a hood scoop like some rickters do to vent air into engine compartment.
The very front of the hood is drilled for sj or rickter hood/hull hooks.
Rear hood latch was a slight design flaw. Screws that hold hood latch clip on are inside of the hood liner/hood cavity. So its not coming off and set up to use oem latch. Which is more than sufficient to keep hood in place. Ratchet straps suck anyway..