I won't deny that some churches (as in, specific people, not the system as a whole) can do good in the world; one church I attended with my parents as a kid had some great community outreach programs that helped a lot of people who had fallen through the cracks. And some clergy members are good people who are trying to help.
But overall, religion is about control (for the religious leadership, and politicians who use religion to gain power), and about belonging and feeling less lost and alone (for practicioners) in an uncertain world.
Oh, and as an atheist who knows and hangs out with a lot of other atheists, I can assure you that "anything goes, you can be whatever you feel like and there's no judgement of any of your actions" is not a thing. Or, rather, it very much is a thing, but that attitude comes from just as many religious people as it comes from the non-religious. And there are quite a few actions that religious people take that I think are disgusting and immoral, but somehow "anything goes" as long they can justify it in the pages of their made-up fantasy holy book. I don't consider things moral or immoral based on what a storybook tells me; I decide based on how I think my actions will affect others. My system is certainly not a perfect one, but I dare say it's miles ahead of the religious process.