No it's not. I can use the README outside of github as a guide on how to do things with the code. Contributing can define a style guide so we're all on the same

No it's not. I can use the README outside of github as a guide on how to do things with the code. Contributing can define a style guide so we're all on the same page code wise. LICENSE for distribution, Makefile, package.json both are required for the code to work correctly... issue_template.md is only useful in a repo on github.