I can see even those basic needs for survival being perverted by the self because of its fundamental resentment and insecurity.
As in even with a roof over my head and enough food to sustain me ‘I’ find myself in some desperate fight for survival. Then ‘I’ might justify this to myself by saying that I really need even more money in my account or even bigger house, after all there is a recession going on and it’s a tough world out there etc.
It seems as long as I am a self any conversation around what is essential and what is merely a desire is doomed to become perverted into what ‘I’ am driven to have in order to fill that void. Or conversely into what I reject under some spiritual/actualist morality.
A preference quickly becomes a ‘must have’ and before I know it I am clawing my way for security.
And then comes in the spiritual approach of rejection and denial of all those wants so that I can attain freedom, but this is still in the wrong direction.
Then the 3rd alternative comes in where the focus shifts away from all that and into that which is sensible and intelligent. If this becomes my yardstick things get a lot simpler, then I can escape this thing of trying to decide just what is essential and what I should be allowed to desire.
Instead I can focus on what is sensible right now, but the thing is there is really no hard rules with that, it’s something that is always obvious, right in front of me.
Eg it’s the weekend right now and I’m going to do some training which I enjoy, is this a need, want or desire? Probably depending on which way I want to present it, it could be all of them.
I could argue that it’s a need because it keeps me physically healthy and I learn self defence 
I could say it’s a want because I enjoy doing it but really it has no ‘practical’ benefits. I could say it’s a desire because without training I would feel bored.
But it seems whichever way I label it up would depend on the various beliefs which I am seeing the situation through. The fact of the matter is that it makes sense for me to go do this thing, based on all the facts that comprise this current situation happening right now such as - I have free time, I don’t have other plans, I enjoy this thing, I have the capacity to do this thing etc.
If any of those facts were to shift, that which is sensible might also change, maybe I will end up staying at home or going to do something else. But the outcome would be dictated by the facts of the situation as opposed to being dictated by emotion or morality.