[quote="SummerSnowLeopard"]I mean, yes they helped Simba and taught him Hakuna Matata, but please take a moment to imagine TLK
without Timon and Pumbaa. Other than saving Simba, they didn't do anything important.[/quote]
Well, Timon and Pumbaa did serve as a distraction for the hyenas so Simba can get closer to Scar so that served some more importance.
Another thing I may add (that will defend the OP's point) is that in the earlier scripts, Simba made it just fine without too much help after his father died. In the
January 1990 script, after the hyenas drive out Simba, Simba ends up being with a meerkat colony known as the Kombli Rangers led by Timon Vandameer and Tesma. There, he learns that size does not always equal strength, and later leaves where he ultimately meets up with Kwashi (an early version of Rafiki) and Zazu where they arrange to defeat Scar. In the
May 1990 screenplay, Simba is close to near-death after the hyenas chase him out, and while Zazu tries to fend off against a vulture from eating him, Simba wakes up, and roars scaring away the vulture. He eventually finds some prey to eat, and sometime later decides to return home.
However, just to be fair, Simba in those scripts was an adolescent (think teen Simba in 1½), and his exile period could have been at least a month while the final movie's exile period was for years. So, while Simba was just like a helpless child that still needed caring for, I do somewhat think Simba growing up without Timon and Pumbaa is not too far-fetched.