LOL, yeah. In most packs, Thaumcraft is "hard" and purely optional. In this pack, however, Thaumcraft is somewhere between "easy" and "fits right in".
While you can certainly proceed through this pack just fine without Thaumcraft, it makes it much easier/smoother.
And, I'm not complaining one bit. Thaumcraft is one of my favorite mods. It has depth, breadth, and looks and feels really cool. It has, IMHO, some of the best multi-block structures that don't require an immersion-breaking UI to operate.