How "Wholeheartedly" Does Hashem Endorse Tefilah? (or "Insights Into Tefilah from Parashas Beshalach")

This evening (1/11/22), in our tefilah shiur, we tackled a bunch of fundamental questions on tefilah, including but not limited to: (1) How "poetic" are the Torah's songs, David ha'Melech's Tehilim, and our tefilos, and what are the methodological implications? (2) If Hashem knows what we're thinking, why do we have to daven out loud and go through the motions? (3) How "wholeheartedly" does Hashem endorse tefilah? Does He consider it to be a "lechatchilah" institution, like learning Torah, or does He consider it to be a "bedieved" institution, like korbanos (according to the Rambam)? Perhaps it was too ambitious to attempt to cram all of this into 45 minutes, but I think I managed to at least raise the releant questions, present my core answers, and prompt even more questions!