Actually the UM is a hierarchy. The individual church reports to the local 'government' which reports to the national 'government.' "Reporting to" includes financial support which flows to the national leadership.
That national leadership doesn't issue a lot of orders to the local 'governments', but they do use money that flows from your church to them for some things I'm quite sure you wouldn't approve of. That was one reason we left the UM church some time ago.
Having said that, it is getting harder and harder to find a mainline denomination that actually sticks with biblical teaching.
We are not a hierarchy. As an ordained elder in the denomination for these many years, I can assure you that we are not. We are a “connectional” system and not a “hierarchical” system.
The individual church does NOT report to the national church. It reports ONLY to it’s own district and region(annual conference.) Our highest officer is the bishop of our region (west ohio in my case) and my bishop is one of very many bishops. Each of them can tell the others to take a hike, and there’s no “arch”bishop over any of them who can tell them what to do.
I have NEVER sent one report to any national office ever.