My understanding doesn't contain certainty that there was one man Jesus, that the stories are not all of one person, but possibly not just allegory or exaggeration, but an amalgam of occurrences over the years by multiple men, and some even possibly made up to fit the narrative.
Seems we would at least had a note he wrote home to his mother, or a fan that got an autograph, or a disciple that kept one of his orders for supplies.
But yeah, I take the stories to be useful by being situations that happened in my mind. Using his compassion, empathy and thought to make decisions on personal situations. You know like wwSHd? What would sherlock Holmes do? Just because he is a fictional character does not mean I can't use his techniques/thought process to help with this current problem in my mind.