Hi, Ryan. A great article. In my estimate, you have touched upon a very important topic, which is two layers - or better said - approaches to religious thinking. My history teacher used to call them as the exoteric (communal, ritual, external) and esoteric (individual, internal, based on direct experience) approaches. I have written an article about that. It is quite old, and quite old, but I think it might be of an interest to you. Peace.

https://pauliusjuodis.medium.com/two-ways-of-looking-at-religion-esoteric-and-exoteric-religiosity-the-essence-and-the-guise-e3f75a6e96c2