Having learned it the hard way
" One example of an issue you might see: Time Scaled Value grids that previously showed data in portlets no longer show data. This can particularly happen after an upgrade. The job is required as it populates the core data points."
also means that to get those core data points populated to start with you have to run the the datamart extraction (and have the datamart set up) once before you start getting data on some of the time scaled portlets.
Then when the populated calendar run out you have to run the datamart extraction again even if you are on a test system where you do not neet the reports and such comingfrom the NB tables but need the time scaled portlets.