Believing God is “the universe” is how people license themselves to do whatever they please. A universe-god won’t hold them accountable.
The problem with that idea is: God is not the universe. He created it.
We know only so much about the origin and future of the universe. Everything yet unknown could be thought of as something else we’ve already given various other names to. If it’s true that the more we learn the less we know, then there may may be eons of time in any direction for us and/or other forms of intelligent life for pondering and subsequently realizing their existence. In the meantime, we can believe what we want to believe if if we insist on arriving at foregone conclusions in our own lifetimes. There is no problem, unless further discovery represents a problem for those who have settled on their religion’s explanation(s), however ancient.