Very unlikely to be required indeed. Almost all of these "1602" displays have resistor "R8" as "101" or 100 Ohms.
Now note that the photo shows "blocks" in the right hand half of the display only, and on both rows. The contrast is clearly set correctly (irrespective of ow the potentiometer is wired 
)
This strongly suggests a faulty display as I do not know how it can be initialised in that manner. 