No par, no handicap, no competitive golf amateur golf unless scratch.
A benchmark is needed whether it's called 'par' or 'bogey' or something else. The important thing is how and where the benchmark is set.
As to pro-scratch-TV-golf, Nicklaus was once asked what he thought was going to be the winning score in some tournament. The interviewer was expecting an answer like 'x-under' but Nicklaus answered something like "276" adding that "276" usually wins this tournament on this course. In other words he was focussed on the probable a 4-round winning score (and no doubt how he was planning on scoring it).
Different folks, different thought patterns.
atb