You use a lot of philosophy in your arguments but they are not logical sometimes. ''The choice then is not choosing which religion is right but choosing which religion represents the least distorted simplification that you personally can grasp and follow. '' You are saying that we somehow know a god exists but we don't know much about it and then we have to pick the least distorted religion. Yet for thousands of years religions have existed, science has advanced a lot and here are, not any closer in discovering which religion is the best, everyone still believes in the same religions as before, you don't see a lot of muslims converting into Christianity just like you don't see a lot of Christians convert to islam. You wanna know why? Because 99% of religious people, no matter which religion, believe in what they believe because they were taught that way not because they wanted to find out the truth. Again, that's the problem with religions and its followers.
You keep talking about ''accepting the reality of the infinite'' like it means something but it really doesn't.
Everyone does not believe in the same religions as those of the past. History is a vast arc of humanity slowly approaching truth while rejecting falsehood. Part of the reason you are not following my arguments is that I am using a much broader definition of religion then you are. You seem to limit your definition of religion to "gods" and wall off other beliefs as "something else". This is very common but in my opinion it is an incorrect categorization one that is ultimately misleading.
I define religion as anything an individual structures their life around either consciously or unconsciously. Thus I consider things like Communism, Nazism (Fascist Darwinian Nationalism), and Nihilism religions if they are honestly embraced by the individual as overarching truth. I agree with BADecker that a very broad classification religion is more representative of reality.
Most people believe what they do because they were taught that way not because of an introspective search for the truth. This is true of a huge swath of humanity whether their religion is centered on God or centered on something else. It is one of our many major flaws a fundamental and deep lack of reflection.
The rise of nihilism in modern times is largely due to the fact that we are reaching the point in our development where this lack of reflection is becoming less and less of an option. Unlike in simpler times we can no longer ignore the question and blindly embrace the beliefs of our colleges and parents. We are increasingly forced to confront challenges to our views and thus actively define who we are.
When I speak of the reality of God's existence and accepting the reality of the infinite it actually does mean something. What I am referring to is a foundation that is available to center ourselves on a rock to ground existence and knowledge itself upon. In philosophy this is referred to as a metaphysical grounding. The link below discusses what this is in more detail if you are interested.
Metaphysical Grounding: Understanding the Structure of Realityhttps://ndpr.nd.edu/news/metaphysical-grounding-understanding-the-structure-of-reality/