Not everyone is an atheist and not all religions are theocracies. If you are an atheist and a secularist of course you are going to have zero interest in belonging to anything religious but not everyone who leaves Mormonism falls in that camp.
Doesn't mean I don't believe there is something out there. It just means I believe we don't and can't know for sure. Above all else I believe no person, interpreting ancient myths, has enough knowledge to claim to speak on and behalf of a deity.
I can be fine with the concept of a "higher being" but I can't believe he needs my money or takes attendance. Nor does he care what I eat or drink. He could care less what if any attire I have. If my shirt is white, green or blue doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what I eat. It doesn't matter if a guy in a bathrobe waves his hands and gives me permission to live with someone.
A long time ago I watched a simulation of traveling through the universe. It started with an aerial view of my house. Then it pulled out showing the continent, the earth, the solar system. It continued to show the milky way, local galaxie clusters gave way to larger and larger groups of galaxies.
Finally it showed their concept of the entire universe. I thought, who is man that god is mindful of him? I conclude that so much of what drives religion is meaningless and the truth might just be beyond our ability to understand.
There are plenty of low-demand Christian churches for those who still want a church home. You won't be cleaning the chapel or the temple, or asked for 10% of your income, or be drafted for callings, or endlessly visited or pestered.
It wasn't just the repressive side of religion that made me reject spirituality. In fact, it was kind of the opposite, initially. I felt like the topic of god and what he wants of me was so important, that it SHOULD take over my life and my internal narrative. It felt like weekend casual attendance or the lack of demands upon the individual was these other religions just not taking the question "why are we here?" and of faith and belief as seriously as I felt it should be.
If you're not willing to kill your kid on an altar then I don't know what you're talking about when YOU use the word "faith." We're not on the same page.
But in the beginning, the first three months after my shelf break, I was willing to try. Okay, we're not going to obey to the absolute letter and spirit; we can be chill and low-key about spirituality. But then as I started seeking answers to questions that Mormonism had originally answered for me, trying to replace those answers with what mainstream Christianity had to offer, the more I began to question "why bother with it at all?"
I was on a huge melting pot Christianity forum where all these different denominations could gather and discuss religious ideas, spirituality, and do spiritually uplifting things together, like share music and group scripture study. I asked a lot of questions and was disappointed by the vagueries. Nobody could give me an answer on "why?" for humanity being here,like what the goal and mission of it all was. I wasn't happy any longer with Mormonism's answer to that question but at least they have a cogent answer of what we're here to do. Nobody could define the godhead without using double speak yet NOBODY truly believed that Jesus Christ was the child, the son of god, and was a separate being to the big god who created everything. Which makes more sense than this brain slurry contradictory slippery "three but really just one" thing they try to sell.
Mostly, what got me to really reject Christianity and essentially other religions as well, was recognizing the same language tricks that were used on me in Mormonism. You're just supposed to accept things as they are told to you. There is no thorough exploration of an "ought", things just are. It feels the same as Mormonism. Someone trying to make my mind small.
After decades of not being able to stomach organised religion I am now a baptised member of the Church of England, reading from the Bible during Church services, etc.