I’d say this is a fairly good spot to focus an investigation. Buddhism can sometimes be orientalized and idealized by westerners, and it’s not good to let that blind us to when someone like Ashin Wirathu claims it in order to stoke Islamophobia, Imperial Japan used it in nationalist propaganda, or some traditions use it to denigrate women.
Any belief system will likely have some power-hungry bastards try to use it in these kinds of ways, I think.

Personally I do usually see myself as a secular buddhist - I am agnostic on the truth of the longer arcs most schools draw regarding rebirth etc., but I know experiences within a human lifetime include suffering, change, the pain of grasping etc. which the teachings offer some understanding of and tools for dealing with that have helped me. And from the suttas I’ve read, that appears to be the thing the Sakyamuni Buddha returned to a fair bit - the purpose of practice is to reduce suffering, not metaphysical musings.