You are conflating prayer with worship.
Prayer IS worship.
Some interesting definitions, if one wishes to appeal to a dictionary:
Prayer (noun)
a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship : I’ll say a prayer for him | the peace of God is ours through prayer.
Worship (noun)
the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity : the worship of God | ancestor worship.
So, actually, when we pray, we DO reverence and adore God...so we DO worship him when we pray. So, to pray to anyone other than God is to worship that person or entity. And, again, to do that is to practice idolatry.
So, yes, I do conflate prayer with worship. I do so because prayer IS a form of worship.
Hoss