Maybe Transform is an obligatory component base class
It is an obligatory component only for a "component based engine "
If you define a class Actor which contains a variable such as " position " or a method such as " Move " then you dont need to have a class Transform
You simply write, in the Loop() function
myBot.position;
myBot.Move();
instead of attaching a script to myBot :
transform.position;
rigidbody.Move();
You are right 3dgs is basically a component based engines but in the past there were engines with a different archictecture
,ex TrueVision
Having said that , I dont mean that components are bad, I mean that in my opinion they lead to a ugly code
I did hope that UE4 resumed the old fashion programming style