Necessary is the wrong way to look at it, it was a consequence of the growth above all strategy.

They broke into markets with disregard for the law, often it backfired, often it didn't.

Allegedly(as it is being investigated) they also "stole" IP from Alphabet in an attempt to get ahead in the self-driving gold rush.

They repeatedly ignored several sexual harassment reports in order to protect someone who they referred to as a "high performer", in the name of growth, they could not afford to lose a high performer.

In the startup/VC/unicorn hype world growth is king, it comes before profit, revenue, employee wellbeing, customer satisfaction, business and work ethics.

Uber is not the first guilty of this, it's just the extreme case.