No, the resource file is not needed. 

As far as the Settings link not appearing for an instance of your feature that you placed prior to creating the settings, I think you may have accidentally changed the feature guid after setting up that first instance. Try deleting that original instance and then add the feature back to the page.

HTH,
Joe D. 

I said previously to put Resource for the resource file name if you are not using one of your own. It will look in our resource file and if it does not find a key matching yours it will just use the key itself as the label.

You might want to look at how your ModuleTitleControl is declared if it is not showing the settings link.