Is "Going to Disneyland" a necessary rite of passage for today's kids, or would They be oK never visiting the park?

Thinking about the recent "class divide" post, it just resurfaced the complex feelings I have about Disneyland.

Me, I grew up in Orange County, not too far from the park. My dad worked there in the 60s, in Tomorrowland.

When I was young, we had annual passes for a couple years, and we got to go a lot, and had a lot of fun at the park. (I may be wrong, but I think, back then, our passes were like $100 for the year)

When I was in college, circa 2003-04, I worked at Disneyland, on It's A Small World, and doing crowd control for Fantasmic.

Overall I've been to Disneyland many many times, and I have fond feelings for it.

But I'm thinking: if/when I have kids, would I be a bad parent if I never took them?

I'm wondering how crucial Disneyland is to the experience of growing up in the U.S. I guess, growing up in SoCal, many of us went there, and we sort of took it for granted.

I have friends who couldn't afford to go as a kid, and now, as a young adult, they want to go, to fulfill that dream...

So, I think to break this down, there are two questions: are theme parks a necessary thing for kids growing up? Obviously, not necessary like food, water, shelter... but are they a key part of the childhood experience?

And then, on top of that, among theme parks, is there something that sets Disneyland/World apart, or in the end, is someplace like Knott's good enough?

(side note, I went to Knott's recently after years, and I was impressed - very clean, good rides... pretty good theming, definitely some magic happening there...)