Are binlogs required for InnoDB Recovery?

MySQL & MariaDB Other MySQL® Questions
1

I was under the impression that the binlogs were required for InnoDB recovery, but in testing, I have successfully recovered on a different server using an lvm snapshot without them (bin-logs are on a separate lv).

The only thing I can think of is that there are no running transactions due to FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK so no rollback has to occur during recovery. Either that or I’ve just gotten crazy luck 3 times in a row now.

2

Binlogs can help to recover database to latest version.
If you restore from archive done week ago - you will get an outdated database. But if then you execute binlogs which were written during this week - you will get up-to-date database.