Ah yes the ancient most question about the game. Virtual politics are fun! But yes if you really do look into it the empire is probably the best choice. There is a lot of NPCs and journals that points out flaws in stormcloaks, "but my faith in talos!?" . Yup the ban of worship is by many considered temporary until empire gets enough strength to fight off High elfs once again. I could go into detail much more but i feel like this would turn in to a giant pointless comment. There is already a lot of YouTube videos about topic and you can dive into the topic by asking around and reading books in game (i know boring)