The conciousness is an illusion irks me.

I do feel things at times and not other times. That is the most fundamental truth I am sure of. If that is an "illusion" one can go the other way and say everything is conscious and experiences reality as we do

The larger question isn’t if we feel or not. One of the questions is: is our “window” into consciousness occurring before or after decisions are made.

If it’s before, then you can easily tie consciousness and free will together. If not, we are effectively watching videos of our bodies operate. Oh - and there is no spoon.