Yours is an astute observation, I believe. The term "god" is loaded in the English language - and more importantly - in monotheistic cultures - in a way that makes it hard to understand the relationship people believed they had with a wide assortment of spirits. One might be better considering traditional European Catholic practitioners who appeal to a favorite saint more than God.

Following are two paragraphs taken from different parts from my recently e-published Introduction to Folklore; perhaps this will help:

Something also needs to be said here about myth. People use this term awkwardly. In a European context, myths tend to be the artificial constructs of ancient and Classical-era priests or literate people who sought to weave folk traditions into a comprehensive whole. The exercise often had political purposes, designed to provide diverse people with a single set of beliefs and stories. By reconciling similar traditions, the shared culture of these groups could be seen as more important than the differences, justifying the central rule of the king and his priests. Myth is also a way of organizing and reconciling folk traditions, which by their nature can be contradictory and highly localized. Myth tends, however, to make gods of supernatural beings, giving those powerful entities a status – for modern readers – similar to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God, even when this comparison is not justified. Of course, it is also important to point out that myths were stories that were told – and then written down – and they were different from religion itself. Many myths were simply the shared cultural inheritance of a group of people.

And:

In the process of recording folklore, priests also promoted some supernatural beings to a pantheon of gods and lesser gods. Authors of these early texts usually combined the features of the most powerful male supernatural beings with the vague god-like prime mover. This gave society a heavenly counterpart of the earthly king, and priests used the comparison to elevate the stature of the human ruler. In addition, priests took advantage of the situation by claiming the exclusive ability to intermediate with these gods. Of course, the original supernatural beings were powerful, feared, respected, and often placated with sacrifices and other magical means to win favor. Their transformation to the status of gods could be subtle and there were variations with each society. The important thing to remember is that the recorded myths of ancient cultures were based on folk traditions, but they were transformed to suit specific purposes.