Question about Buddhism

Hello Rabbi Michael,
Here are some facts about Buddhism, from my initial review:

• The main teaching of Buddhists is the concern with the question of human suffering and the path outlined by the first Buddha (the meaning of the word ‘Buddha’ is the one who awakened), who was about 3000 years ago a prince named Siddhartha Gautama who, according to Buddhist tradition, left his palace and the comfortable life given to him by his parents and dedicated his life to finding a solution to human suffering. The main idea of ​​his method is that suffering in this world is inevitable, and the way to be free from it is to reach enlightenment (nirvana).
• All believing Buddhists accept the teachings and themselves as disciples and followers of the first Buddha, and therefore they place statues of him, and by bowing to the statue they actually accept him as their teacher. And their temples are more of a “house of learning” for studying and memorizing the Buddha’s teachings and a place to practice meditation. The bowing itself is only to show that they accept the first Buddha as their teacher of his teachings, they do not worship him, offer sacrifices to him or treat him as a living being. In contrast, of course, this may be similar to hanging a picture of a great rabbi in a study room (‘And your eyes shall see your teachers’).
• There are some idols in some of the Buddha’s stories, but they are not really worshipped as in pagan religions. According to Buddhism, they are actually part of the life cycle of death and rebirth (it is not known exactly how they die), and they are usually simply described as beings who live in higher worlds. But they do not concern the fate and life of man. Some claim that they were borrowed into Buddhist parables from the Hindu culture that existed in that region at that time.
• Many people think that Buddhism has “reincarnation,” but this is not accurate. In Buddhism, there is no ‘self’ (ego) that is in the world, but they believe that the ego is an illusion, i.e. that this ‘self’ will not return to the world after the death of the body. Rather, they believe in what is called a ‘stream of consciousness,’ which, as I understand it (it’s a bit of a vague concept there) is the sum of all the habits, cognitive conditioning, and impressions on the soul that cause a person to identify with their current life form, and cause them suffering in their life. Therefore, when a person dies, that “stream of consciousness” continues into the next life form (they call it rebirth) until the person reaches what they call “nirvana,” which is total liberation from human suffering. But there is disagreement among Buddhist thinkers themselves about the nature of reincarnation, and some even claim that it (like the gods) was borrowed from Hindu culture, which does believe in actual reincarnation.

So far, a little bit about Buddhism, and without going into whether it is nonsense, etc., my question is, to the extent that all of the above is true in relation to Buddhism – is Buddhism considered a religion at all? Is it possible to study it? Visit Buddhist temples when traveling abroad? Is it forbidden to keep a statue of the Buddha at home?
Ostensibly, they do not believe in a transcendent creator god who dictates a certain doctrine and watches over and punishes his creatures. They actually emphasize the fact that the first Buddha was a human being and not a god, which they believe gives a sense of belonging to him and his doctrine of liberation from suffering.
It is worth noting that even today, Buddhist teachers are emerging in the West who offer a secular approach to their own system of Buddhism that removes all sorts of characteristics that could attribute it to religion (such as reincarnation, or stories that feature idols) and teaches only the Buddha’s teachings on the liberation of human suffering (part of the New Age). What’s more, there are those who claim that it is not a religion at all, but rather a philosophy or way of life.
Sorry for the length, I would love to hear your opinion.