That's not tautological. There are plenty of defensible business activities you can spend your time on (e.g. "reduce waste", "increase brand awareness") that do

That's not tautological. There are plenty of defensible business activities you can spend your time on (e.g. "reduce waste", "increase brand awareness") that don't bring you closer to making something people want. Nor is it "tweet-wrapped" so much as concise. You said a better piece of advice was "develop a process..." but that's just a longer-winded way of giving the same advice. Is that better? Occam argues it's worse. You're right that it's nontrivial to start out making something people want, but the value of the advice is to keep you focused when you're being pulled in different directions. If you're unsure how to proceed, default to the path that takes you closer to making something that people want. It's a feature, not a defect, that translating this advice into a specific plan necessitates pondering how to get from your present position to that one.