csukovich good question!
Short answer, no!
An object with different parts like this doesn't need to be separated into different objects when the parts are not going to be animated.
If you wish to animate the buttons being pressed, then yes, separating each button as individual objects would be required and then all the individual buttons would then need to be parented to the console object.
Animation of the buttons is not part of this course, so there is no need to separate into different objects.
Happy Blending!
Thanks both of you for your answers! This is always something I've wondered when it comes to modeling in general (when parts should be separate or modeled together). Thinking about it in terms of animation is helpful. I'm a novice when it comes to texturing so I think my inclination was always to keep pieces separate to make it easy to apply different textures with more predictable results. Going to keep going through the course as Omar suggested to see how it goes.
What to combine or separate is basically all about flexibility and convenance for me.
Objects can have different local orientations, modifier values, pivot points, animations, etc. If it's helpful for any of those to be different, or if it's just easier to select and edit the mesh without the other parts getting in the way, then I'll keep things separate. If the objects can all share those properties, then it may be faster to join them so I can update them (like changing a bevel width) all at once.
Beyond that, unless there are specific needs for rigging or exporting, it really doesn't matter beyond just keeping things organized in a way that makes sense to you. Hope that helps!