So how how does a person determine if the editorial process I mentioned above is the best explanation as opposed to the narrative as the priests described it. IOW was the presence of Ashera and other deities really the backsliding of a stubborn wayward people who yearned to be like the neighboring cultures or was it in fact the culture of the peoples from ancient times and it was would-be reformers who periodically sought to change that culture?
For me, I step back and ask questions like why is the first temple in appearance and function identical to the temples of deities through the near east? Why does the OT preserve ancient poems and songs that mirror those of neighboring cult and cultures? Why does he OT say that originally Yahweh like near all other deities was worshipped at a number of high places (even after first Jerusalem temple built on a hill,1 Kings 18:20)? Why would stories like the Aaronic golden calf story Ex 32:4 and 1Kings 12:28,9 explicitly identify the god that took them from Egypt as worshipped with calves? The face value of the stories strongly suggest a post Exilic editor has reworked material that portrayed the traditional use of calves and Ashera iconology. The more you look the clearer it becomes that Israel and Judah were for most of their history quite typical of the region surrounding them. The introduction of Yahweh (likely from the south) began a long process of often violent reformation toward a State religion worshipping one deity. It wouldn't stick despite many attempts. It was really only the Babylonian domination of the region and subsequent Persian influence that enabled these reformers to finally win. To make the transition appear ancient they freely revised their history as one long cautionary tale of the evils of worshipping deities other than Yahweh.
As has been noticed for many years this in many ways parallels the reforms of pharaoh Akhenaten. He too made an effort to move Egypt away from polytheism toward a monolatrous cult of Aten the sun god, approaching monotheism. Akhenaten closed the temples of Amun and other deities and actually had scribes alter inscriptions on stone walls to change wording from gods to god. In Egypt the reforms didn't stick either, just a few years later his reforms were reversed.