Distributed programming is very much a design pattern. I hate design patterns as much as the next rational person, but you can’t effectively assemble a distributed system without it. Even throwing a bunch of stuff behind ZeroMQ or load balancers is “a pattern”.
People don’t need to seek out OTP to use it “because OTP” but Elixir/Erlang’s design decisions facilitate everything needed to make OTP work so well for it’s purposes. You’re welcome to own a sports car with access to the Autobahn and not use it…but why? 
