I always looked at it as “money buys happiness with diminishing returns”. Having enough money usually leads to a good deal of happiness over no money, but all the money doesn’t usually lead to all the happiness.

But yours is very accurate, too. While I am not sure how the hierarchy of needs is seen rn, I find it still is a valid framework. And on it, having security of food and shelter are pretty fundamental, and guess what; they are all money based.