Of course he needs cPanel with a
VPS Hosting — he runs forums for starters — how does he think that all the associated email traffic will get delivered, for starters.
I think there's a clear misunderstanding of what a
VPS Hosting is, that it has its very own Linux operating system and all the services that would otherwise be managed by a control panel (cPanel or an alternative) will be missing and require being set up the hard way.