As you can see, the top does not suffice as a normal ("defensive") totem like every other character has. It does, however, help Cobb make sure he is not in his own dream.
Why would he want that?
He needs one because he is the only one who has been in trapped inside his own dream (limbo) and knows how truly dangerous it can be. Without a "self totem" he could end up like Mal and lose his grip on reality.
In fact, if he used a "self" totem in conjunction with a normal totem (perhaps it's the ring), he could extrapolate any state he might be in. See the chart below:
If you think of it that way, everyone should keep two totems. But why doesn't anyone else have one if it makes so much sense? You would think that Cobb would have warned his friends of the dangers and Arthur would have advised Ariadne to prepare both.
Except......Cobb is the only one who carries a "self" totem because he is the only one who can. The trick is in the way that it functions.
A "self" totem only works if the user subconsciously projects something that does not match reality. This is usually impossible because a normal person's subconscious would project their real experiences into their dreams, and the item would be a normal totem.
Cobb on the other hand spent longer in limbo with Mal than he spent in reality. His subconscious would naturally project his experiences of non-real top physics because they are more "real" for him. It is only because of this strange situation that he was able to create the top totem. No one else could do this without having "broken" their own intuition.
To me, this is the only logical explanation for the top. It's the only way that it works. It also shows that he wasn't carrying it around just to fool everyone (which would be a strange story-writing element). Furthermore, it proves that he needed a second totem, which may or may not be the ring.
Unfortunately....it doesn't resolve the plot. If you believe the ring is Cobb's normal totem, then all the final scene proves is that he's not in someone else's dream....which I don't think anyone believed was a possibility anyway. (It does show that anyone using using the missing ring as proof he's in reality at the end is wrong...but that's neither here nor there.)
At that point, it all comes down to the top again. If it does fall in the end, he's in reality. If it doesn't, he's still in limbo. Either way, Cobb doesn't care and he's happy.
*As a housekeeping note, I consider limbo to be substantially equivalent to someone's own dream (even if multiple people are in it) because it is defined as "unconstructed dream space" where anyone can project into it. This also explains why both Cobb and Saito could both project into limbo.
**As a second housekeeping note, if I'm right, Christopher Nolan wins epic points for keeping the totems logically consistent.
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