To be clear, I am not a Buddhist, just a long time student of trying to figure out what the fuck is going on here. Closest thing to a philosophy that I follow is the Taoism of the Chuang Tzu which is basically the position of “it’s all a muddle and anyone who tries to tell you they know what’s going on is full of it, best to just be quiet.”

Actually none of it was relevant to his actual words. All of the mythologizing came later. He pretty much summed it up as “What have I elucidated? The cause of suffering and it’s cessation, that’s all.” (to paraphrase). The main problem was he was from a culture with a boatload of nonsense that got grafted on to the teachings. Religious Buddhism is awash in Hindu/Vedic add ons.

Soon we will start leaking corn syrup?

If you actually read the words of the Buddha on reincarnation he was quite explicitly clear that he never endorsed the idea.