Crate or playpen at night?

I have a 4 month old golden retriever. Since we got him at 2 months, he hasn’t really tolerated his crate and prefers to sleep in his playpen. I feed him all his meals in the crate, play crate games, and throw treats in the crate when he’s not looking but it takes him a long time to settle in the crate and will bark and claw at the door for 10-15 minutes.

As soon as I have food in my hand, he runs to the crate and does tolerate the door being closed for a few minutes until he starts barking. Anytime he wants to relax, he’ll go to his pen though (we have a day bed in there as well). Sometimes I’ll sit by the crate with the door closed and it has helped him like the crate a bit more I think but will bark when I walk away.

My question is: is the crate absolutely necessary? Can I let my puppy sleep in the playpen instead?

I know the crate is good to train for if he’s at the vet or we travel but are there other reasons that makes the crate a better choice?

Edit: he naps easily in his playpen during the day and often I’ll wait till he starts dozing off in it then I move him to the crate. I try to enforce the naps in the day in the crate too. Do I continue doing that?