I agree that empathetic, compassionate human connections are way more useful than therapy is GENERALLY. (Therapists that function in an occupational manner, such as doing exposure therapy, DBT, EDMR, etc is different and I do not want a trusted friend to do any of that to me!)

I however would push against doing away with the credentialing process. You can threaten an abusive/shitty therapist with losing their license. There are plenty of absolute quacks, especially religious-specific therapy, and being able to say "do not associate me with these dumbfucks" is important. [It's not uncommon for religious counseling to discourage reporting rape or child abuse!]