I wouldn't say "requires". There is a common saying in physics grad schools: Put monkey in lab. Wait 10 years. Monkey gets PhD.

There are different forms of creativity, some more open-ended than others. Most research done in scientific fields is not what I would call open-ended creativity. BTW, the most creative idea I have seen recently actually came from the Univ of Washington & Microsoft Research: http://labs.live.com/photosynth/. The most creative one prior to that came from a phd student @ CMU: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8246463980976635143. It would be interesting to see what percentage of successful startups are conceptually clever with mind-blowing ideas such as these. As an example of one, I really like http://www.likebetter.com/.

Absolutely! Creativity is as important, if not more so, than technical skill.