I haven't really read a lot of the theories on this subreddit, but I'll go ahead and share mine that I may have picked up from the first time I read this subreddit.

Arnold and Ford may have differed in opinion (there's really not much to go on other than the mystery that Ford sets up) and Arnold seems to have been more for exploring just how far the hosts could go into being human-like. Basically creating human 2.0. Someone pushed back for them to remain as robotic and removed from sentience as possible so that they could create Westworld. Arnold then made the "game"/"maze" that the MiB is hunting for. The game is actually similar to a Turing test in figuring out if a host has true sentience to go off script and take charge of their life.

Ford creating a new storyline that includes a type of religion has something that remains to be seen but my early prediction is it is going to be a way of making the hosts self police for people searching for the "meaning" to their life that isn't the religion that is introduced.