Do I need to run a full Malairte node to mine?

No, not for pool mining. When you mine in a pool, the pool runs the node and your miner only needs the pool URL and your receive address. This is why most beginners can start within minutes. Running your own full node becomes relevant if you want to solo mine, where your miner connects directly to your node and competes for whole blocks, or if you simply want to help decentralise and validate the network. A full node downloads and verifies the entire blockchain, which takes disk space and time to sync, but it is not a requirement for earning MLRT through a pool. Start with a pool, and run a node later if it interests you.