Very few put out rigorous academic level content

I think it's worse than that, since they don't even as much as put out things that are well-researched. In my view, the best and really only service done by TrueAnon and Chapo (and I guess deprogram) is that they do have some good interviews with figures who do know what they are talking about and put out well-researched work on important issues.

being a religious communist is entirely contradictory

Being a religious Marxist is contradictory, so his stance is, but it's worth mentioning that there are non-Marxist religious communists whose stances are much more coherent, even if they are still wrong and in reality we need a materialist understanding of the world to not kneecap any ability to engage with our conditions.

My own path to becoming a wannabe communist (because I am just a capitalist subject that wishes they weren't )

Being a subject of capitalism isn't the same as being a liberal, just like being subjects of feudalism didn't prevent those liberals revolting against it from being liberals. It's normative participation in being a capitalist subject that makes you effectively a liberal, i.e. something you can change.

I realize all three of my points could be read as quibbling over word choice, so sorry if it comes off that way.