The "escapism" angle is forced so fucking hard by this fandom.
Chapter 4 does not present religion as escapism *at all*. It presents church and prayer as positive elements of a community and a person's personal spirituality. A real and meaningful part of people's lives. The idea of escapism in the sense of using a toy or fantasy to ignore reality for a while is totally absent from the plot and themes of chapter 4. Even when it comes to the prophecy, none of what Ralsei gets up to is escapism, his issues are a mix of avoidance and fatalism.
Chapter 3 is acknowledged by Susie and Ralsei to be an exercise in escapism from the get-go, and they're both on the same page about what it is and when it's time to wrap it up. There's no actual conflict about escapism; the cast are actually shown to have a very healthy understanding and use of the concept.

>Kris used to be close friends with Noelle but stopped hanging out after what happened with Dess
>After Kris left Noelle by herself Berdly took their place, even renaming the cactus named "Krismas" to "Tsuntsun"
>The first thing you do on weird route is make Kris give Noelle an evil brainwashing wedding ring and then tell her to kill Berdly, Kris is said to have partially enjoyed this
Hmm