Paulus wrote:
On the whole though, such alignments don't seem intentional.
the obvious animistic worldview underscoring the psychologies (and thence, reasons) of those who carved these stones
You can't have it both ways. How can you say that a physically observable alignment does not 'seem intentional' and then talk about something subjective as being 'obvious'?
I've seen you knock people (as have I) for stating that it's 'obvious' that stone circles sit on spiralling energy lines, and yet you have just made an equally far-reaching statement.
Although, there are many theories about prehistoric man having animistic beliefs, there is no proof and it isn't obvious, either. It does seem likely, though, in the same way that some alignments seem likely to be intentional. However, they may only have been intentional because the the sunrise between two hills may have looked pretty, rather than having any religious context. An alignment could still be the reason for a site's location, even if its only significance was aesthetic.
Likewise, a painted/carved figure emerging from a crack in a rock may just have been a Kilroy-type joke - 'Wot? No Mushrooms?' ... art for art's sake ... I can imagine the chap/chappess who carved it leaning back, sniggering to himself and shouting, "Eh lads, look at this!"
We will never know what went on in the minds of these people. We can only speculate, and with all speculative areas there will be different camps. Some theories will be more reasonable than others and some will be more in vogue than others. Sooner or later someone will come up with a new 'reasonable' theory and a lot of people will abandon their previous favourite for it.
To dismiss a few alignments because they stand alone in a wide field and do not fit in with another theory is, in my view, wrong. To me it says that the other theory is not complete, or that two theories are needed. The second theory could be as simple as 'the sunset between those hills looks pretty from here'.
Just as an example - there are a few early churches in Ireland that are not aligned east-west. They align to the sunrise on the patron day of the local saint - Labbamologa in Cork is one such place. The presumption is that the local saint took the place of an older deity celebrated on this date. However, that can't be proved. The church could have been build wrong and the patron day chosen later to explain the error.
