The problem with your argument is that it doesn’t deal with the inherent human desire for some sense of order to our existence, that if it isn’t projected positively, in some fashion that is coherent to sufficient people, tends to congeal negatively and that can be a problem.

So do we tell these stories and explanations because we are egotistic, or are there deeper issues?

For example, a spiritual absolute would necessarily be the essence of sentience, from which we rise, not an ideal of wisdom and judgement, from which we fell. More the new born, than the wise old man. Consciousness seeking knowledge, than any collection of it. The light shining through the film than the images on it. Yet could a society function, if it simply reveled in sentience? No. It needs order. So we have that top down, father figure lawgiver and his ten commandments.

Of course, the basis of our scientific knowledge is the cumulative knowledge of civilization, that enables some to explore the furtherest edges of reason and knowledge and the foundation of that knowledge is our narrative talents, of telling each other of our journeys and building that store of knowledge.

Consequently even theoretical physics treats time narratively, as the present moving past to future, codified as measures of duration. Yet the evident fact for anyone actually observing reality and not just learning about it from books, is that change turns future to past. Tomorrow becomes yesterday, because the earth turns. Duration is this present state, as the events come and go. There is no physical dimension of time, because the past is consumed by the present, in order to inform it. Causality and conservation of energy.

So time is an effect, like temperature, pressure, color, etc. Think frequencies and amplitudes.

We could use ideal gas laws to correlate volume with temperature and pressure, but no one calls them the 5th and 6th dimensions of space, because they are only foundational to our emotions, bodily functions and environment, not the sequence of thought, necessary for mobile organisms to navigate their environment.

Though try pointing that out to a theoretical physicist and the response will not be; “Well, that’s an interesting insight.” But some version of, “You are an ignorant stooge who does not understand the math.” Why? Because social order matters more than logic. Same as with the Ancients and their religions. Either you believe in the wisdom of the tribe, or you are not part of it.