Some of the Protestant “Reformers” gripes about corruption in the Catholic Church in the early 16th century was warranted, but they threw the baby out with the bathwater in their revolution.
Only Luther didn’t aim to start a new religion. The others did.
It appears to me that the opposite is true, that the hierarchy stiffened and overreacted, then cemented all the bad doctrine at Trent in order to differentiate themselves, thereby creating a new religion. They’ve been adding to it ever since, Mariology, primarily. Mid-1800’s saw the immaculate conception become doctrine. 1950’s saw the bodily assumption of Mary become doctrine. It now appears to be as much Marian as Christian, to those Christians who do not belong to that church.
I thought you’d claimed to be Eastern Orthodox several weeks ago, when you signed up. Aren’t there points of strong disagreement there, as well? Did Rome found a new religion when it split off from the east? The Orthodox strike me as having remained more true to the early church than Rome, honestly, your efforts at apologeticw here on FR notwithstanding.