The overall issue you have is that you think Buddhism is one thing. There are literally millions of teachings in Buddhism that correspond to the various delusions of different kinds of beings.

I genuinely think that you are in an excellent place where you are questioning these things. I think now you should go deeper and look for answers to the doubts that you have.

When you look deeply at Buddhism, what you end up at is an empty sky. There are no rules, there is no ideology. Its simply this:

Nothing exists, yet it still appears.

There are millions of ways that a teacher can bring their student to understand the meaning of this.

Good Luck my friend.

FTB