I think you should complete the campaign, you most likely still have two weeks before the season even starts. I am not sure about this, but i believe to unlock freeplay for your seasonal cahracters you have to finnish the campaign
Seasons are a way to let all players start at the same point at the same point. They only thing carrying over from your non seasonal characters are the shrines of lillith that you found as well as your capaing finnish.
Yeah, you need to finish the campaign at least once. Then you can skip on all other characters, including seasonal ones.
And I would add that seasons generally add new stuff to the game, so it changes the experience. Im not sure how much they'll add in d4, but there is a stream on the 6th thats supposed to give us more info on season 1.
Seasons are just a refresh, where you need to create a new character that won't have access to any non-season items in order to participate. You won't be able to access your existing stash, and many unlocks will be reset. Usually there are new items/mechanics/events to go with a new season.
Blizzard haven't given us all the details on what Seasons will look like in D4, but at the very least it'll be an opportunity for the community to all begin "fresh" and enjoy the new content together. I believe they did say campaign progress will carry over though, and you won't have to repeat it with a seasonal character if you've already completed it before.
Once the season is over, your seasonal characters/items/unlocks will merge with your non-seasonal stuff. That way, you never lose any of that "progress", but you still get to enjoy the fresh grind each season. Plus, if you're competitive, the ladder provides an opportunity to compare your progress and achievements against other players. Things like who reaches level 100 first, dungeon completion times/difficulty, and lots of other things will all be tracked.
Seasons are a regular reset with everyone starting mostly from scratch. For hardcore competitive players it's a way to compete on leaderboards and such. For more casual players, most seasonal games incorporate some new hook or mechanic into the game, sometimes only for that season, other times retaining them in the core game.
If you're playing through the storyline, I'd say stick with that and don't worry about the season.
You don’t need to play seasons, you don’t even need to play seasons in day 1. You can join whenever you feel like you want to start a new character.
Seasons aren’t a big deal, they’re usually just to offer people an excuse to keep making new characters, to give them a small reason to (like a new mechanic or new build options, items, etc)
If you’re not done with your original character, just keep playing it. You’re not missing out on anything
The fact that season are starting so early into the lifespan of the game is a little odd. Most players aren’t finished with their first character yet