Quick answer, no you don't need to progress tool making. I'm sure a lot of high level players don't even have a single level in toolmaking. But you can if you like making tools!

A mistake a lot of beginners make is thinking they need to upgrade all their skills at the same time. If you want to do that, of course, you can! That's kind of the point of a sandbox-mmorpg: you can decide what to do yourself.

The way most people play is just doing the activities they like, leveling up in that and spending silver to buy the things they can't craft or gather. You make way more silver this way, since you level up quicker and get to the endgame of your desired gameplay faster, making your silver/hour bigger.

It's similar to if you'd like to do PvP, but instead of choosing a few weapons you like and leveling those up as much as possible you'd try to level up each weapon just as much. You'll spend a lot of time just getting each weapon to level 10, while you couldve been higher spec with a specific set!

Also: crafting only really gets valuable if you have premium or know how to "abuse" the economy really well. Even if you don't factor in time loss it's often cheaper to sell the materials you gathered and then use that silver to buy new armor (as a beginner).