“You don’t need a priest, or sacraments, or a “church”, or a denomination, or charismatic ‘gifts’ or baptism or hierarchal permission, sanction nor absolution ...”
“Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.
.....John 20:21-23
The question is not “why do Catholics confess to priests”? The question is why do non Catholics NOT confess to priests.
Yep.
Besides RC priests being mostly lost via a false gospel, one reason is that hiereus is never used for NT pastors, nor does it mean presbuteros or episkopeō , despite entomology based on imposed functional equivalence (and all believers offer sacrifice and make up the general priesthood" (1Pt. 2:5,9)).
And Peter told Simon to ask God himself for forgiveness, (Acts 8:22) though intercession by the church elders can be efficacious (not as in the Last Rites), (Ja. 5:14-16) as well as by others. And binding and loosing is seen in exercising judgement in discipline. (1Cor. 5)