If you don't mind another reader chiming in, your experiences with these traditions and rituals sound very familiar to mine in many ways. I also really like a lot of the philosophy behind the AODA/SoP approach, but found it didn't click with me in practice.

Even if I ultimately ended up with the Heathen GD, I'm also unsure and ambivalent in some ways the whole religion aspect of it, but I figured I'd give it a honest try and see where it takes me. I also asked JMG on one of his MM posts way back, and IIRC he said that you don't necessarily need to have a super close and devoted relationship with individual Gods to do a course of magic like this, as long as you approach it with the proper respect and open-mindedness (obviously I'm paraphrasing here).

In any case, I can definitely relate to the struggle to choose. If you do end up on the Heathen GD path, I'm also looking for people who might be interested in helping form a loose group around it that could hopefully blossom into a full Order in time (along the lines of the Druidical GD), so I thought I'd mention that this door is open if you do go this way.

Hope you find a good and fulfilling path that suits your needs!