I disagree. I don't think it was not absolutely necessary, tbh.
They could have easily had him... y'know, not remove his mask. Maybe have had his lenses cracked so we could see his eyes. A lot of emotion can be portrayed solely through the eyes.
Spidey's on the front of the train (his mask is ON), he's screaming as he's trying to make the train slow down and stop. We see his suit rip at the seams, we get a close-up of his eyes and we see his face twist from the pain.
After he's stopped the train, he collapses, is carried in, somebody removes his mask to make sure he's not dead. They're all mortified at the fact that Spider-Man... is "just a kid".
It's the same, but it's not, if you get me. It also would have been a great way to reduce the "It's a-me, Peter Parker!" moments the trilogy had.
But I'm really happy with how the scene went.