This can be true for some resources that people consume in limited amounts, like food. It's not true about houses, cars etc as you can always want a larger one, a faster one etc.
All you objectively need is some calories every day and some shelter, some medical attention. That's it.
Everything else is subjective. Either you define "needs" to be objective and thus you can satisfy them with just those things or you can talk about them as "wants". It's just semantics.
We pretty much have all objective needs satisfied. That shouldn't stop anybody to persue their "wants".
While I wouldn't say it's "settled science", it's a fairly well-studied area, and we don't have to just throw up our hands and say it's either bare-bones survival or anything anyone could possibly ask for.