The Logitech Spotlight is expensive because unlike most presentation remotes, you can move the cursor just by waving it around in the air (though you can get it for much less from other stores). Most remotes don’t control the cursor at all, to the computer it appears to be a keyboard but one with only a few buttons.
I haven’t tried one but when I looked at information about it, my hunch is the software isn’t required for it to act as a Bluetooth mouse or for simple left/right arrow buttons. The software is definitely needed to give the cursor the spotlight, magnify, or laser pointer effects as well as customizing the button functions. A reason to use such software instead of a literal laser is if a recording or livestream of your computer screen is being made, a real laser will only be seen by people in the same room.