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Alright, I am a mechanicus fanboy I admit 100%, but this question always sort of bugged me.

So Lorgar started worshiping the emperor, got told no and put in his place. We all know that was because The emperor was going through his Reddit phase, but Why didn't lorgar decide to join the mechanicus? They worship the Emperor as the Omnissiah, are able to keep a faith without being put down by the imperial truth, and tech priests are as much priests as they are IT workers. Aside from needing an excuse for the horus heresy to happen, why didn't Lorgar join the only emperor approved state religion?

Lorgar strikes me as the kind of guy to whom lofty, abstract concepts appeal. My guess is that he just didn't vibe with the relatively specific scope/concepts of the mechanicus. He wanted magic spirit aesthetics, and they were offering grungy computer aesthetics.

Lorgar: I must worship the divine!
The Mechanicum: !!!
Lorgar: Ew. Gross. Not like that.

Alternatively, it could have been understood that just because the Emperor gave the tech boys a pass didn't mean he would have let Lorgar use their religion as a shield for the behavior he'd already been chastised for. If Lorgar tried to do Calth 2.0, I imagine the Emperor would end up sanctioning him again; all the cog wheels glued to everything wouldn't change that.

Emperor: Lorgar! We've been over this!
Lorgar: But you let the IT guys worship like this.
Emperor: The IT guys are necessary idiots who mostly keep to themselves. I'm not letting you go around telling every world you conquer to worship me.

Only some within the Mechanicum actually worshipped the Emperor as the representative of the Omnissiah.

A greater number saw him as an oppressor using the guise of the their God to enslave them.

Lorgar didn't fall because the Emperor denied Lorgar's worship alone. Lorgar was shamed by the one he believed a God and would not worship him in any form.

There may also have been political concerns. While the pre-Heresy Imperium didn't have the same level of concern over organizations getting chummy that the post-Heresy Imperium does, it's also likely that eyebrows would have been raised if Lorgar had literally started worshipping the god of the Mechanicum. The "fun" thing about religion from a ruler's point of view is that it opens the believer up to loyalties that potentially supercede those extended toward the ruler. The Mechanicum was kept loyal by announcing that the Emperor was an avatar of the Omnissiah (fun comparison - Malekith did something similar toward Khaine to gain the loyalty of the Witch Elves). If that changed for some reason and the Mechanicum revolted, who would Lorgar side with?

Lorgar had his fundamental beliefs instilled by Kor Phareon to be a zealot. Lorgar wanted a firm piece of evidence for his faith- something that had power and could wield it. He saw the Emperor as that individual who was worthy enough for that faith, but was rebuked for it. The Chaos Gods were next best target for his faith, as they exist and give power and have influence over reality.
The Cult Mechanicum's Machine God is more of an archetypical being that's the culmination of all knowledge. Though the tech priests witness "miracles" these are readily explained as tech they don't know about or how it's used, or Machine Spirit "AI" doing it's job. In any case, there's no real presence Lorgar can associate with the Machine God, save it's prophet: the Omnissiah, Big E. Perhaps if the C'tan shard of Void Dragon got loosed in HH times and like converted a whole Martian forge into a techno-utopia, that'd get his attention. But the Mechanicum was basically artisans praising themselves for things they're not 100% sure about in the first place.