I have the robot & Boon following me around like ducklings.
I don't like it.
I never liked to pick up followers in Fallout...

Are they really necessary or kinda a buff?

They're not necessary unless you're doing their quests. Either tell them to Wait Here (and you maintain their perks), or fire them and tell them to go away.

I personally find them to be awesome in Normal mode (Useless in hardcoe unless you are really careful with them and baby sit them) Boon just about one shots everything for me. It's hot. I have a man crush on him. I'm not gonna lie. But yeah like the other poster said you don't need to have them with you to use their perks. Just tell them to wait somewhere (WHERE YOU CAN FIND THEM!) and you keep their perks. If you want others fire them and get some new ones.

Set Ed-E to melee and non-aggressive, and tell him to stay close and hes basicly a mule.

But I love followers. But they kinda ruin combat for me sometimes. Boone spots them before I have a clue where they are at.

Well , he is a sniper after all , what did you expect :gun:

Ever since FO1 Candy just doesn't like a team.
Ian shot her in the back. That was the end of that.

I recently rolled a new character because I didn't like how my previous build turned out. I have to say that around level 5, Boone and ED-E are very fragile in hardcoe Mode. A few Nightstalkers made short work of them on the way to pick up Ratslayer.

I recommend leaving them in the hotel. In my previous build, around level 12 or so, Boone was kicking ass, but I lost ED-E from time to time...

ED-E is kind of pain inside some of the buildings. He could barely make it past some off the pipes that are over your head. Getting stuck for awhile before you magicly goes through them.

Rex is 100% determined to get himself killed in my game. I swear, I told him to wait outside of vault 34 (after an unsuccessful attempt where he ran off alone and died) and he still managed to show up halfway through to suicide charge the overseer and his turrets. Stupid robo dog
I'm thinking I should look into getting his brain fixed asap