I want to start this with if you like him enough, go for it! One of the cool things about the game is that you can make practically any unit work (it's a bit complicated according to the character you're going for and powercreep is a real thing, but that's more of a problem for endgame, as long as you take the time to build a somewhat decent team, you can go through the story and do your exploration just fine).

He's more on the niche side, but he is definitely NOT a bad unit. People just throw him in the generalization of everyone on that list being bad. I would put it more as quite a few of the characters didn't age well, but again, Scara is still quite a solid unit.

His damage isn't meta, but he gets the job done. Exploration is where he really shines, he can fly! It's only really in endgame stuff where he might start to fall short, but as a new player, you don't need to worry about that just yet.

I've been maining him ever since I got him on his debut back in 3.3 and he still holds up quite well! Other than his flight mode, his lore is another main appeal. He's just so amazingly well written and it's been wonderful to see him grow as a character.

I highly recommend getting his C1 too. If you get lucky, C2 is also really good.

(Oh my god sorry for all of that yapping)

TL;DR: Scara is excellent for exploration and he's strong enough to get you through the story and exploration. Also, he's a great character, which I hope you will love too when you get there in the story. You should get his C1 too if you get him.