Was the Maker worshiped before Andraste?

Actually, outside of some posts by DG on the old boards and the Chant of Light, there has been scant evidence given in game of any Maker worship among the various cultures of Thedas prior to Andraste.

We have now been given a fair bit of evidence for other worship among humans prior to the Old Gods. The Avvar, who were an offshoot of the Alamarri and thus represent one of the oldest human traditions, have a pantheon of gods but no specific creator deity. In fact they have no deity to represent the sun, which is odd considering most ancient cultures in our own world do have a sun god because of its association with light and life. Nor do the Alamarri have a legend similar to that of the elves of someone rebelling against or throwing down the sun god. Of course it wouldn't make much sense if they did seeing as the sun is still ever present in the sky. Prior to the rise of the Chantry the tribes of the south saw nothing wrong with continuing to worship their animist gods alongside the Maker, as though he was just one among many. This would fit with the Avvar concept of the gods merely being spirits of the Fade that assist individual clans that come under their protection. This might explain why there is not a spirit god associated with the sun because it continues to work independent of anything the spirit gods do.

Still, the only evidence of sun worship (and by implication the Maker as he is always associated with the sun) are the pyramids of Par Vollen. These are specifically aligned to the constellation Solium. However, we know that the sun is also associated with Elgar'nan, so that doesn't really prove anything other than the people there worshipped the sun, not a specific named deity associated with it.

The Rivaini also have an ancient cultural pantheistic religion that sees their god and the universe as being the same. Once again, this god is not viewed in the same way as the deity of the Chantry and we have not yet been told what they call this god.

So really no evidence has yet been produced, outside of the Chant of Light, that people ever worshipped a being called the Maker, or that worship of the Old Gods specifically turned people away from worshipping him because they insisted upon it for their support. Nor can we be certain that the history of the world that mentions the Maker was not made up by the being that spoke to Andraste or even those later contributors to the Chant who claim to have heard him as well: Hessarian and Drakon. Both had political reasons for wanting to denigrate the religion of the people surrounding them that differed from their own. Hessarian was trying to hold the Imperium together in the face of revolt, so used a new god to differentiate himself from his opponents in the Senate, encouraging people to reject the Old Gods and the Magisters who opposed him who still worshipped them. Drakon wanted to unify the tribes under him into an Empire with a simplified religion that he controlled. Both used the Maker to this end.

As for who people thought ruled the Golden City prior to Andraste.   So far as can be told, the ancient Tevinter believed that the Golden City was the home of their gods.    Thus they did not go there to usurp the place of the Maker but either by invitation of their gods to be rewarded with immortality (still largely influenced by what is said in the Canticle of Silence) or because the gods had already fallen silent and they wanted to know why (this largely based off the memories of Corypheus' servant in the Fade and writings of the priesthood of Razikale in the Frostback Basin).   The elves also believed the Eternal City at the heart of the Fade was the home of their gods (not clear if they saw it as golden or not).  The Dalish even believe this was where their gods were locked away by Fen'Harel.   Based off what we know of Avvar belief, it would seem they likely thought the same too; that it is Belenas, the home of their gods.   Their legends even seem to remember the moment when the Golden City was cut off from the Waking World by the Veil, recalled in their legends as the moment the Lady of the Skies lifted it away to be cut off in her realm, so the gods could live in peace untroubled by mortals.    So again, it would seem that no one, prior to Andraste, believed the city to be the home of a single god, the Maker.

The real problem is they have abandoned their original concept: "What would it mean to have fantasy religions where gods were not known entities who provided spells (benefits) to believers but instead required faith in their existence?"

In DAO all religions were equal in this respect. No matter what faith you followed it had to be taken on trust. You could also spot similarities between the various faiths that could suggest they were tied together in some way in the distant past. The most obvious of these was the fact the Chantry believed that the Maker had imprisoned the usurping demons pretending to be gods and the elves believed that their gods had been lost to them because they had been shut away by a being called Fen'Harel. Since one of his motivations was said to have been to have the Fade to himself, it could be argued that Fen'Harel was their name for the Maker and he was obviously considered the enemy because it was owing to him their gods were lost to them. Also there was the other legend of Elgar'nan throwing down the Sun, suggesting this was when they usurped the Maker's place in creation, since he was depicted in the Chantry by the sun. Then apparently these gods started talking to a different race from their prisons but it almost seemed to fit.

In DA2 Sebastian even suggests to Merrill that perhaps they are talking about the same thing. So it was acknowledged by the writers you could see it this way but equally you could deny it. There was nothing definite about any of it. There was no proof and equally there was no real disproof, although they planted the first seeds of doubt by having Corypheus say the Black City was already black when he got there.

This has now been completely done away with. We met the Avvar and discovered that they do not deny their gods are spirits, interact with them and get tangible benefits in return. The PC can even benefit from the prayers and offerings of an Avvar girl. So if you adopt the Avvar religion you need have no faith based on trust but have had it substantiated by actual events. We discover the elven gods did exist and as taught by the priesthood, they were looked away by Fen'Harel. However, there is a big problem in this. Fen'Harel is not simply some spirit of the Fade. He is Solas, we interact with him and he categorically denies he is a god. Plus he tells us the means he used to entrap them was reality changing magic in the form of the Veil. Whilst he never categorically says there is no Maker, to an Inquisitor of faith he can sound very disparaging. And why shouldn't he? All the things the Maker claims to have done we in fact done by Solas. Plus the Maker also taught Andraste (according to the Chant) that the demons looked on the Waking World with envious eyes because they couldn't be part of it. Yet for many thousands of years they could.   It was only the actions of Solas that stopped it. 

So now it is not so much a case of proving the Maker exists as having proven most of what is contained in the Chant is a lie. I can happily still believe in the sort of Maker Leliana believed in back in DAO, which seems closer to Rivaini belief about god and the universe being the same, and thus may be discovered to be the original human belief (if we ever get up that far), but not in the one peddled by the Chantry. Sadly the writers won't allow this. To be Andrastrian you have to have faith in the Maker promoted by the Chantry and frankly I just can't see how my PC can honestly maintain such a faith when confronted with the evidence to disprove it.  Also Divine Leliana is in fact now promoting a wholly new version of Andrastrianism, or may be it is the genuine one that Andraste taught and we've finally got back to it, but I would like some acknowledgement of that. 

In any case, it is no longer the idea of "faith" as presented in DAO.

If the Maker was being represented as an abstract idea like the Logos or the "Word" as found in Christian belief, then I would be fine with that but that is not what the Chantry teach and what we are being asked to have faith in.

The Maker of Andraste was not an abstract idea, as the Chantry teach he did intervene in the world in support of her crusade, with famine, flood, earthquake, etc. So he could act but now chooses not to until everyone sings his praises.

The reason we were believed to be the Herald of Andraste is that the faithful do believe that the Maker and Andraste will ultimately return and we were the prelude to that. Hence we were the Herald of that return. Drakon's whole justification for his authority over the religion was based off a "vision" he had depicting this return. So that was the basis for the faith demonstrated in DAI in our role. Of course it was proven to be baseless and bear in mind that we were actively encouraged to lie about this. Again, I find it hard to have "faith" in something when I personally have been involved in preserving a lie and know that all the leading figures are aware of this.

In any case, where is the evidence that anyone ever believed in the Maker as an abstract idea prior to Andraste? Remember his gripe with humankind is that they did worship him but then demons encouraged them to look elsewhere and according to the Chant they were asked to actively reject the Maker. So whether a tangible being able to interact with the world or an abstract idea, we still need evidence outside the Chant that people were worshipping him and then stopped.

A related issue. What about faith spirits? Do they respond simply to the faith of the person in giving their aid or does it have to specifically be faith in the Maker?

In DAO it seemed the spirits that aided Spirit Healers were Spirits of Faith and that they were tolerated by the Chantry as a result. Wynne was rescued by a Faith Spirit. However, subsequently the spirits concerned with healing have been identified as Spirits of Compassion, which makes sense and removes the problem about them assisting someone with no faith.

Seekers of Truth are given their powers by a Faith Spirit but is it the strength of the faith which attracts it, so any person with similar strength of faith could acquire the same powers, or is it the nature of the faith, so it is only given to a person who has faith in the Maker?

What about faith in an ideal, such as freedom, rather than an actual deity?

Would a worshipper of the Old Gods who still had sufficient faith in their deity receive the aid of a Faith Spirit?

Was it in fact a Faith Spirit that was aiding Andraste much of the time, even if her original contact was with the actual Maker?   Was it her desire for freedom from tyranny for her people that attracted a Faith Spirit to her that she called the Maker?    In fact in some of the earliest parts of the Chant she doesn't call the being the Maker at all.   He is identified as the Wellspring of All.   (So were the writers just messing with us when they called the area inside the Titan in the Descent the Wellspring?)