Jason, if by "using the same name," you mean calling the guy Vic Sage and claiming he was the Ditko character having just gone through a traumatic experience, then I can't really argue with you.  But I disagree that the "hero name" and visual were easily replacable.  The entire series was built around them.

O'Neil's changes were concious and completely intentional. He began the series by having Ditko's Question shot in the head and "killed." That he is then brought back to life as a more conflicted, less certain, more "questioning" character was O'Neil's way of throwing Ditko's more black and white version aside and changing him into someone O'Neil could admire and identify with more.

O'Neil shot Ditko's Question in the head and killed him to make him more palatable for O'Neil to write. That's pretty hard for me to overlook.

I've not read all of O'Neil's Question, but from what I recall, the character did not suffer brain damage as a result of his injuries, or that at least was not what was implied to be behind his change in perspective. He died and was reborn, spiritually, philosophically, and politically.

I get that O'Neil liked Ditko's art, storytelling, and professionalism in declining to draw a splash page dream sequence with Tony Stark drunkenly weilding a broken bottle to paranoically take on the patrons of the bar in which he's been drinking. Marie Severin drew that splash instead. None of that, however, means that he was willing to write a Ditko character with politics and ideals as Ditko conceived or wrote them.

Gods are something of a staple of superhero comics, but Marvel and DC have tended to avoid explicitly endorsing any one mainstream faith. (When Tony Isabella was writing GHOST RIDER he gave Johnny Blaze a recurring "friend" who he intended to be Jesus. That got right down to the wire, but Marvel editorial called for rewrites to get rid of the "reveal".) Characters like Satan have usually turned out to be somebody else -- Mephisto in Marvel's case.

But this. . .

••

I know the Spectre was the embodiment of the "Wrath of God", but was the "God" in question this specific? I admit I did not read that particular run of the character.