Do you actually need a unique selling point?

But, do I actually need a unique selling point? After all there are plenty of services that imitate other services and compete on price and customer service

But... In your example those ARE unique selling propositions ("better customer service", "cheaper price"). In tech USP tends to be around "better", but of course that is not the only possibility.

Your approach sounds concerning.

I have hundreds of ideas written down, and 99% of time the idea AND the core of unique selling point come at same time. E.g. "Ah fuck this is how to do X better!" is both the idea, and the core for USP.

Your approach of first coming up with idea, and then trying to "find" unique selling point on top of the idea has major risk of coming up with a weak made-up USP for the sake of marketing

If you can't figure out the core of USP easily, maybe your idea doesn't have one?

Think why you are better than others, - if they only point is that you are cheaper- not the best scenario

well, it depends on what you're selling:

• If you're selling bananas you don't
• If there's no incumbent you don't

Look at WIP, Makerlog, Product Hunt Makers. All very similar. All making money.

I think the question of whether or not one needs a Unique selling point or as it is more commonly described a “Unique Selling Proposition (USP)" is very important from a marketing perspective.
As an example, if say you needed a toothbrush to brush your teeth and felt you could fabricate one for yourself then you could do that and for as long as it has a handle and some bristles I am sure you could be satisfied that you had a functional toothbrush that did the job.
However, if you then decided that since you had made a functional toothbrush you now wanted to sell it to me when there are already perhaps thousands of existing toothbrush brands then the least you would have to tell me to convince me to buy is to tell me why I should stop buying the ones I have been using and buy yours.
A cursory glance at Wikipedia reveals the USP concept emanated in the 1940s while trying to explain early marketing success. And part of that explanation was the concept of “differentiation” which a USP was supposed to help an organization identify as a go-to-market strategy to convince customers to switch brands (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unique_selling_proposition).
So coming back to my example of the toothbrush above, you could choose to be a merchant “A” who decides to mass-produce your toothbrush, attempt to sell it and become stuck when you try to market it because you are unable to answer the simple question of “what makes your own toothbrush better than others” or “why others should buy yours instead”. Or you could choose to be a merchant “B” who puts some more efforts into your product research and identifies a gap in that market and produces a toothbrush that is different or “unique” because it addresses that particular need and so able to now sell to even existing customers who are already buying toothbrushes.
I can bet if you had your money to invest between these two vendors, the choice of which merchant you would invest in is very clear.
So in my own view, any thought or actions from entrepreneurs that tend to ignore the value of developing a sound USP as part of a marketing or product developing can only be shortlived.
In the extreme case of people ignore having a USP, people produce average goods and services and think they can mask that by throwing in a lot of money into advertising to penetrate the market without focusing on any real differentiation strategy. Again it may seem to work at first but usually, over the long run, they don’t get repeat customers because people sooner than later realize that the product or service is all hype and no substance.
Now that is the long answer…but from your own experience you described here you have had success with developing products with a USP in mind from the onset and it worked..so why change it now?

Yes you do, otherwise why should I choose you over a competitor?

Even if you want to compete on price you'd better have one: "Like product X, but cheaper".

I'm speaking from a place of limited experience here, but my thought is: USPs are helpful in thinking clearly about your product and in communicating about your product others. Your product must by some definition be different than the others (unless you're just a reseller), and therefore must have some unique things about it. If you don't know what those are, you don't know the market landscape very well, and that's dangerous.

Is a USP necessary? I don't know enough to be sure. Probably not - I often buy coffee from local roasters when I visit the farmers' market, and while many of them have mission statements or other things posted, I primarily buy off taste and smell. "Good tasting coffee" is hardly unique, and yet I still buy.

Anyways, just my $0.02.