It's not essential, depends on how high safety is on your list of priorities - just go through the used car finder on the Porsche website, I guess less than 10% of cars have TPMS (although it's standard on the 997 turbo).
I specified it on my car and in my opinion it's worth every cent for the peace of mind it gives. If I were to order another car it would be on my essential things to have, far above any cosmetic options. I have the computer set up so that it displays tyre pressures in the display all the time. It is very reassuring to have that information and know that the tyres are OK. It only has to save you from loss of control due to a deflating tyre or a blow out once.....
Re tyre changing this doesn't have to be one by a Porsche Centre, but it is important to let the fitter know that it's there so that he doesn't damage the sensors with tyre levers, etc. Once the new tyres are fitted, the TPMS system can be easily reset using the onboard computer.
There has been a fair number of posts here about the accuracy of TPMS, and I would always inflate the tyres using an accurate gauge (which is the advice given in the manual). It id certainly better than the system that BMW and others use which rely on detecting changes in wheel rotational speed to detect a deflated tyre rather than by actual pressure drop.
And in practice how often do you check the tyre pressures - recommended every time you fuel the car?