I am not aware of anything that the stock Apple music app requires iTunes for.

How else do you get music into the app? Also itunes Radio and buy songs via itunes on the device is still itunes

If you define buying music through the app itself as 'iTunes' then this is a meaningless discussion aimed at bashing the word 'iTunes'.

You can use the app perfectly well without ever going near the desktop iTunes software, as you say by buying music through the device, or using iTunes Radio.

If you have other music you want to load, the yes, you need to use the desktop app for that.

What's your point?

iTunes sucks, hard. The desktop version in unavoidable if you want an mp3 file.