Yes, static sites still need HTTPS. Troy Hunt explains it well:

https://www.troyhunt.com/heres-why-your-static-website-needs...

I used to be of this opinion but enough ISPs and other intermediaries will happily MITM http (and DNS) if they can to inject ads or redirects to affiliates.

With modern hardware and letsencrypt, getting SSL going is about close to free and less effort than what most "just text" sites do for their content.

One thing that I don't like about unsecure sites is that, depending on the ISP or Wifi access point, they might inject things into the stream.

Yes, because not having it will still leave your browsing on that site succeptible to MITM attacks.

>Does it need it?

Yes. It's that simple.