This may seem crass.
The question is: “Should an individual ‘confess their sins’ to another human being, or to the Creator themself?”
I might be a bit ‘off’ about ‘the church’. My first 3 years of school were peppered with sitting in the waste bucket, behind the closed door of the coat closet, knuckles rapped with wood rulers, and a few times with the nun’s noticeable complete handprint on my face. Lastly, when my friend ran into a busyy street after a ball, during yhe funeral service, the priest pointed at me, blamed me before the whole crowd
It’s a good question. The priest is an alter Christus, when one confesses to the priest one confesses to Christ and it is Christ who forgives. The priest is the matter of the Sacrament while it is Christ who is the agent. St. Thomas covers your question here:
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/5008.htm
Jesus Christ instituted this Sacrament for our benefit, not because He needed it this way but as a help to our frail nature, which has been wounded by sin.
I went to a Catholic school where it was obvious that some of the nuns had joined a teaching order, but had no natural talent for teaching. So those nuns were perpetually frustrated. Then there were other nuns who were naturally gifted at teaching and their classroom was a joy to be in.