ceremonial and community aspects of religion and basically argues that these serve a purpose that purely secular life lacks

I disagree. You even say:

I’m inclined to believe that whether it’s technically religion or no, some people are going to find ways to do things in a manner similar to the solemnity and reverence of religion.

Yeah, which reinforces the idea that it's not necessary. You see regular ass people worshiping sports players, but at least they're actually real and not telling people to commit genocide and owning slaves.

That doesn’t mean religious people are going to happily and easily give up religion and replace it with nothing.

That goes without saying? For some reason people seem to think this is the position of atheists who see the horrors of religions and it's just like...not?

No one is ever going to convince me that this stuff is good for humanity as a former indoctrinated christian of almost 20 years, and it seems like there's a weird gentle handling and defense of this horrific shit, I'll never understand it.