animated object and their 0,0,0 position.

I understand for non animated objects, we usually want to put the pivot at the base of the exported object. I have an animated object in max where its global position is 0,100,0. Is animation is based off of this pivot. This object has looping animation and will be moving around the scene. When imported into unity set at prefab value, it shows the correct position. BUT our programmer decides to set all the value to 0,0,0.

I understand that this can be fixed by giving the object a null at the top of the hierarchy. My question is does it make a difference? Is it standard practice to create a null parent at world space 0,0,0 for all animated objects?

thanks!