Possibly. Or maybe his point of the community being "purposeless" is not some sort of condemnation of the community but an observation of the mood of the community. It's not that they are inherently "purposeless" (what would that even mean?), it's that they are seen as and made to FEEL purposeless. It used to be that Travellers were needed by people to do various jobs, and now that those jobs are generally gone, people don't see the need for Travellers. So, they figure they should get a house and a 9-5 and get along like the rest of us do. They, in essence, feel like Travellers have no purpose, and this has become engrained in the way society talks about Travellers. Assimilation is the name of the game and has been for a while, and if they won't assimilate, well, that's their problem.

Of course, this is awful rhetoric, and like you said, there is no inherent "purpose" needed for a community. But that doesn't mean that the existential crisis of the past 50 years for Travellers can't be boiled down to the fact that many people (and not just settled people) feel that the community is, for lack of a better term, purposeless.

Again, maybe I'm not picking up what he's been putting down, but this is the impression I get.