Miller high frequency arc start

I'm familiar with scratch starting, never done it, but familiar. My dad has an ac/dc stick welder already, so I thought it could get me welding on the cheap. I'll be fine either way, I'm contemplating buying a century tig like user davebonds got. Just have to wait another month or so. More than anything I posted this to hopefully gain a better understanding of how people piece together a good working welder.

It seems like I've seen people hook a stinger lead to a torch, hook up the gas and go, not thAt I have any plans to do any such thing. It seems like a pedal is necessary for control or else why bother?

I thought the box in the above cl listing would be good since it had an included pedal and fine frequency control.