This is the problem. You're demanding that a religion must worship something. I, and many others, disagree that a religion must worship something.
A problem here is no pre-modern religion exists that did not worship something; even in the East religions had worship. Yes, from a purely ideological perspective, it is perfectly possible to be Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist without worship but in practice this never really happened.
Confucianism was heavily tied up with ancestor worship, veneration of the Emperor as the "son of heaven" not to mention the elevation of Confucius to god-like status.
Taoism had a whole pantheon of deities and indeed still does.
Buddhism greatly venerated the Buddha and many forms, such as that prevalent in Japan, China and Tibet have a whole pantheon of enlightened beings that they venerate, if not outright worship.
Historically speaking the idea of a worship-less religion seems absurd. There is a reason why the Greco-Roman philosophical schools (such as Epicureanism and Stoicism) are classified as philosophies and not religions despite having complex belief systems.
Also there is the issue of game-mechanics, which clearly include priests, temples and shrines and priest abilities such as "praying for signs". It is clearly assumed that religions will worship with divinities and the like.
Of course you could argue that your "priests" are not really priests but are actually scholars/philosophers, that your "temples" are not actually temples but rather academies where members of your order meet for discussion (which of course begs the question as to how the are differant from guidhouses), and that your "prayers for signs" are actually merely conversing amongst the peasants to find out local problems. However IMO the wording of the game-mechanics with regards to religion make a clear statement what kind of religion is aimed for, if not simply the use of "prayer", something impossible without worshipping or at least venerating a divinity of some sort be they deity, natural force or transcended human.
Of course this is just my reasons why I think any worship-less religion such as Manifest Path should not be classified as a religion, and I agree with Geronus that a disscussion of what classifies as SMA would be more effective here.
