How are you measuring his needs being met... my DS1 could have all day cuddling 1:1 time but if we didn't go out & kick a ball around or go for a walk he'd be "needy" at bed time... DS2 the opposite all day running around & if he didn't get cuddle time he'd be too unsettled for bed. It was a learning curve for me to work out that they had a gold standard I could spend most of the day giving little attention & as long as I spent time on the things that mattered to them it was filling there cup up.
My DS2 is almost 11yo he hates going to a dark room in the house & turning the light on... it's not like it's all that dark in our house if one light is on anywhere it radiates, but he flatly refuses to go to the front room if it night & the light isn't on & if (which increasingly happens as he is LSN) he goes to bed at the same time as the rest of the family we have to leave the hall light on until he is asleep he knows it isn't rational, he even says himself he knows he shouldn't worry , but you know it is real for him & you know what I understand... I remember feeling much the same as a child, I hated using the downstairs bathroom after dark in the evenings because on day there was a weird shadow, so I'd turn all the lights on & go upstairs all the time until I was about 14years old.
At the moment at bedtime your DS is showing he wants you there, why he feels that way I doubt even at 10yo he could explain what is the trouble but as you say "terrible 2" would be spot on, which really in developmental terms is massive overload of development (2-3 is when children learn the most in their whole entire life, they do have brain overload a lot) & Mum is the safe consistent one, knowing she is there when they struggle is what they need, they feel like they can't cope (which at times is probably true) & they need to feel safe. Culturally it is really a small percentage of the world that actually don't have shared bedrooms with younger children & it is a lot to ask a small child to cope with their growing imagination in the dark when they are tired. Them asking you to be there for an hour is hard (BTDT) but when they work through their emotions it isn't an hour it's back to the normal routine... it's kind of like when they start school sitting with them for reading & homework takes time, but later on they do it on their own. It's really a matter of doing Gradual withdrawal, sitting near him, telling him you have to go to the toile & coming back getting to the point where he learns a routine of "Mum will keep checking on me every 2mins & then every 5mins until I fall asleep, but it takes time for them to learn to trust that is what is happening & sadly with most parenting it isn't always quick, but it is very worth it to look past the idea of bad habits or them being difficult & look at them just simply doing the best they can to cope with being 3ft tall in a world of giants. He's not doing it to make your life difficult, he's doing it because he can't cope with how difficult his life is & it's what he feels he needs to relax at the end of the day...it's normal most of us have BTDT, but it is & always will be a cry for help & love rather than a being difficult.
