What has been observed is that the earliest relationships with gods and spirits did not come from a place of worship, but rather of transaction and mutual benefit.
Especially among pragmatic peoples.
Many spirits were seen as the equivalent of spiritual fauna, but even that isn't quite accurate. They were just part of the world, as opposed to the Abrahamic concept of a god beyond the world.
This is perhaps the key difference in perception which leads to the difficulties in finding a middle ground between the two.