Do we need to link Appcenter to use react-native-code-push? Is Appcenter only needed if you want analytics, crash reports, push etc?
react-native-code-push started out as a standalone tool and continues to be able to be used as such. If you are using it standalone you will have to use the CLI. If you use AppCenter from Microsoft they have at least some UI built into their platform for code push that you can utilize.