"Most Kind, Most Merciful"

How does a being, who boasts of unmatchable kindness and boundless mercy, be so cruel? Yet still, this same being has 1.6 billion devotees loyally bowing to Him 5 times a day, offering their thanks in worship. Thanks for what? For being brought into the world and being subject to hardship after hardship? And we excuse this as a "trial from God", "to test our imaan". Why does God need to test us?

God, with His boundless love and mercy, subjects His creation to starvation, disease, torture and death.
God, with His boundless love and mercy, allows the existence of shaitan, to tempt His creation, who fall victim and are then punished in hell.
God, with His boundless love and mercy, creates for His creation companions and instills between them love, only to take them away.
All praise be to Him.. Rahman, Raheem.

And the greatest sin is shirk.. association of something with God. Not murder, not stealing, not cheating.. but shirk. God's biggest peeve is anyone suggesting that He is not the greatest. A conceited and boastful God, who funnily enough dislikes these very characteristics in His own creation. God created humans to worship Him, to tell Him 5 times a day how great He is. Allahu akbar. Why does He need to be worshipped? An insecure God needing reassurance from His creation that He is indeed the Greatest and the Only? It's a little unnerving somewhat..