AFAIK, El was one of the prominent Levantine deities in their, rather extensive, polytheistic pantheon. As was btw. Yahweh, too, who, on top of everything, originally had also a female consort. Elohim, as a plural of El, could be associated with Sumerian Anunnaki who had a similar meaning, that is, the group of most prominent gods. I, personally, see them as the primordial forces of nature that formed in the first split of second of this universe and "rule" it ever since.

Slightly of topic, I noticed that you extensively talk about various levels of meaning of Biblical stories. I don't know if you are aware of it, but Judaism (particularly Kabbalistic exegesis, known as Pardes) has four levels of interpretations of Torah: 1) Peshat, the simple and literal interpretation; 2) Remez, the allegoric, metaphorical, or symbolic meaning; 3) Derash, the comparative meaning based on textual analysis, and 4) Sod, the mystical and esoteric meaning arrived at by deep contemplation of the material at hand, inspiration, and revelatory insights through trance and meditation. Suffice to say, none of those interpretations contradict each other.