I think you're distinguishing between deism and theism. In the West, deism (the view that God exists but is practically irrelevant since nature runs itself) was the halfway house that led early-modern scientists and philosophers to atheism. It was practically as good as atheism, but without stepping over the line when the Church still had political power to make the life of skeptics difficult.

I'm contrasting atheism with theism, so the God in question is both the Creator or First Cause and a parental figure who has our best interest at heart and who thus intervenes in natural affairs or who at least directs evolution and history towards a guaranteed happy, just ending.

The question regarding agnosticism is whether we're in the dark about whether that God is real or a figment,