It wasn't, until classical monotheism came along and proclaimed there was only one god, and that god was good, looks out for humanity, and is benevolent.
Traditionally, gods and spirits were understood to be autonomous agents with their own agendas. Those agendas intersect with humanity in different ways, ranging from benevolent to benign to malevolent. In many cases, various gods were understood to embody all of these at once. And it was also understood that humans weren't the center of the universe, so the gods are just not expected to pay special regard to humans for good or for ill. Much of Pagan ritual can be about attracting or diverting attention of various gods and spirits towards or away from oneself based on how they tend to interact with us as a species. Some of these "superstitions" still persist today and even exist in some form in classical monotheist religions. Those traditions have their own ways of interpreting these matters that make sense from their own vantage point.
In any case, what is useful to do is examine those assumptions held. What you assume about the gods, what you assume about fate and fortune, what you assume about the place of humanity in the universe, etc. Different sets of assumptions will paint the canvas in different tones, so you get to be the artist here. No need to necessarily do all the work from scratch; plenty have picked out some pigments and subjects to paint already. Religion done mindfully is hard - you have to do some work, some thinking. It's not a bad thing that this feels like a "stumbling block." Working through life's challenges and finding meaning in it is a major point of religion.
