Maybe "prerequisites for my goals" is a better way to say "needs". Like, if my goal is to play bass at church on Sunday, I need...a bass. If my goal is to sound good in the room, that sets a minimum bar for the bass (like needs to be in good working order, no dead spots, straight neck, no fret buzz) and the amp (needs decent tone, needs to be powerful enough to carry the room if PA support is lacking, needs to sound good mic'd if that's how it's used). If my goal is to sound good on a recording of the service, I might need some additional stuff like a compressor, some EQ flexibility, maybe some other tone shaping). If my goal is to play song as-recorded, I need a ton more effects and tone flexibility so I can sound as much like the original artist as possible.
Where it turns into needs-vs-wants is where you're going beyond the minimums to achieve your goals. Like one of my goals is to sound good on the recordings of our worship services. That informed my purchase of an effects box, because I needed a compressor and EQ so I could smooth out my signal and tweak what goes to the board to be different from what goes out into the room. I wanted some additional fun-to-have stuff, so instead of just buying a compressor and preamp, I bought a HX Stomp so I could play around with dirt, chorus, reverb, envelope filters, etc. I didn't go overboard with my wants and start a massive collection of pedals or set a Helix and AxeFX side-by-side or anything.
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, and she would often tell me about her spending sprees only after the fact: forgiveness being easier than permission, of course.
