Honestly I'm not a big Lovecraft guy. Like I read synopses of his stories and impressionable nerds being driven mad by wacky weirdo shit seems like extremely my thing, but reading actual stories is like pulling teeth. Maybe he was just that bad of a writer or maybe I don't know English well enough to enjoy his verbose nerdy prose...
No it's because I identify with the protagonist, discovering eternal incomprehensible horrors that few acknowledge or understand. I always just kinda ignored the whole 'natives worshipping thing' part. Maybe an oversight, but those were always the weakest written parts anyways.