Not true. You can turn off the wifi and the headset works fine.
The current problems sound like a server-side bug while it phones home. But usually it can work fine without internet.
Standalone just means the VR compute is happening on the headset itself, not on a console or gaming PC the headset is tethered to. Of course, most of the people disputing "standalone" already know that, they're just playing definitional games.
