Yes. It was a command and Adam and Eve and the rest of mankind suffered the consequences for that decision to eat the fruit.
The point was that God allows us to make the decision whether to Love God and follow His commandments.
Why do some follow a man-made religion instead of being part of the Church founded by Jesus Christ?
Oh, the irony of that statement.
Catholicism is just as much a man made religion as any other.
But that aside, the believer does NOT follow a RELIGION, but a person.
Believers follow Jesus, not a organization or set of rules and regulations and practices that supposedly make them right before God.
FORGIVENESS and being clothed with the righteous life of Christ is the only way that one is deemed worthy to stand in God's presence.
>>The point was that God allows us to make the decision whether to Love God and follow His commandments.
Adam and Eve did not have a corrupt heart as you and I do. You should not presume to think that you are the same as them before the Fall. They walked and talked with God, an act that would destroy you.
>>Why do some follow a man-made religion instead of being part of the Church founded by Jesus Christ?
You mean Jehovah’s Witnesses and Unitarians? I do not know.