To expand on what you've said:
Religious and humanist go very well other. One gives you universal unrest reduction, the other gives you cheaper conversion and more tolerance for true faith. Not only that but humanist also makes it quicker for separatism go away while religious makes it cheaper to culture convert. They combo really, really well together but it is impractical and a waste to take them both. In fact, it is almost always a bad idea to pick religious no matter what.
From the 18, 2 are garbage (naval and maritimate), 2 are either must pick or never pick (exploration and expansion), Religious is unfortunately not good enough because you can go humanist, Innovative is a waste of a slot unless you want to stack military policies (kind of a waste in SP), ECO is situational (the only countries that make good use of it are those that have to dev for all institution and have easy access to hold mines), espionage is still really bad, aristocratic is situational, Diplo is a must have, Influence is a must have if you are going for vassals, Defensive and Offensive are really strong, quality is useful but not as good as the aforementioned ideas, quantity is oftentimes overkill as it offers a great selection of buffs, Trade is only worth if you are going for its policies and don't have an easy access to a lot of merchants.