Royston, I think I more-or-less see things the way you do. I have my own spiritual path, and I have no desire to impose that path on anybody else. I don't want to defend that path, become moving into defensive mode takes something away from it.
Still, I think there are many here who feel compelled to attack the spiritual paths that others take, without fully understanding those paths.
I grew up in the Roman Catholic tradition, and I made it work - for me, and for a number of people who attend the classes I teach at church. I know other Catholics who follow paths that are completely foreign to me, particularly when their faith leads them to injustice and intolerance and blind obedience.

-Joe-