These are the kinds of questions that involve more cultural context and background research than word studies. Very good question, although a similar question was already asked as pointed out by Bach above.
Leviticus is a book mostly about the ritualistic system of Israel. As I've already explained in another post, God used in the OT and in the NT the languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek), objects (sticks, cups, trees, mountains, etc), the natural environment (foods, beverages) that were already available to Israelites, Jews and Christians to modify them and adjust them his way to give them new significance. We do not see that God made people use things that were not available to them or that they were not familiar with.
Therefore, sacrifices, libations, slavery (actually servitude), the throwing of dices, the use of bread and wine, astrology (as seen in Job and Revelation 12), the use of numbers 3, 7, 12, 40, 70, and so on and so forth...these all existed in various forms in the ancient Near East before Moses and Israel.
So, what we see in Leviticus and somewhat elsewhere in the Pentateuch is that God demands Israel to perform different feasts and sacrifices and cultural practices that very lightly resembled that the pagans did, but with stark contrast and important differences. These differences is what made the Israelite feasts and sacrifices unique and sacrosanct.
See Leviticus 18.24-30:
Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all
these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean,
25 and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and
the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you shall keep my
statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the
native or the stranger who sojourns among you 27 (for the people of
the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that
the land became unclean), 28 lest the land vomit you out when you make
it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 29 For
everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them
shall be cut off from among their people. 30 So keep my charge never
to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before
you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your
God
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway
Bibles, 2016), Le 18:24–30.
This passage above mostly refers to bestiality (sex with animals), incest (sex with family members), witchcraft and divination (with animal parts), child sacrifice. But, that's the point! The pagans also performed their own sacrifices and feasts, but they misused certain animals ( the very animals that God forbids eating in the OT! ) and certain natural resources ( even blood ) such as honey. Thus, to not imitate them, God adjusted how Israelites were going to sacrifice and practice their cultural norms.
Let me cite one critical commentary that made the same observations you made:
The prohibition against honey may represent a reaction against the
widespread use of honey in pagan cults, an explanation actually
ventured by Maimonides. Indeed, we possess extensive comparative
evidence that honey was frequently offered to pagan gods in the
ancient Near East. In the Ugaritic epic of Keret, we read that nbt
(cognate of Heb. nofet, “honey from a honeycomb”) was offered to the
Syro-Canaanite god El. Cuneiform records from Mesopotamia and ancient
Syria often list dishpu, “honey-nectar,” as an offering. By
prohibiting the use of honey on the altar, the priestly laws may have
been directed at eliminating pagan practices. There is a subtle
suggestion that the aversion to nectar as a sacrificial substance may
have been very ancient in biblical Israel. Whereas wine and olive oil
were prized as ingredients for sacrifices, nectar was not.
Baruch A. Levine, Leviticus (The JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia:
Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 12.
Additionally, the Hebrew word Devash in Lev. 2.11 is generic and it's not necessarily honey from bees (wild honey), but can also be nectars from dates and fruits. When it's Devash (honey) from bees, the text usually says so as in Judges 14.8-9.
Let me cite:
John E. Hartley
Yeast (שׂאר) and honey (דבשׁ) may never be added to a grain offering
from which any portion will be burned on the altar. In the OT the kind
of honey is not specified save in Judg 14:8–9, where the context
defines the substance as “honey from bees,” clearly meaning wild
honey. Whether beekeeping was practiced in Israel during the biblical
period is uncertain, but doubtful. The majority of OT references to
דבשׁ mean nectar of fruit, particularly from dates and possibly from
other fruits. Since honey was the basic sweetener in ancient times, “a
sweet substance” may be a better translation for דבשׁ (cf. A. Caquot,
“דְּבַשׁ debhash” TDOT 3:128–31). Of course, דבשׁ did exclude the use
of honey from bees in offerings that were to be burned on the altar.
While the leftover portions may not be prepared with leaven
(6:9–10[16–17]), honey may be spread on them. Loaves of firstfruits
baked with yeast, however, may be presented as תנופה, “an elevated or
wave offering”; none of these loaves, of course, is to be burned on
the altar (cf. 23:17). Moreover, honey is included among the
firstfruits presented to God in 2 Chr 31:5. This regulation stands in
marked contrast to the common use of honey in the cultic rituals of
Israel’s neighbors.
John E. Hartley, Leviticus (vol. 4; Word Biblical Commentary; Dallas:
Word, Incorporated, 1998), 31.
From Baruch E. Levine:
Most authorities—including Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Maimonides—insist that
devash in the Bible refers primarily to the nectar of dates and
possibly of other fruits. It is, after all, a general term for
“sweetness.” The Akkadian cognate dishpu also had that more general
usage. Furthermore, verse 12 must have intended the nectar of fruits
because honey processed by bees would hardly have been called “first
fruits” (reʾshit). It is reasonable to conclude that the prohibition
set forth in our chapter was inclusive of both bee honey and nectars.
Baruch A. Levine, Leviticus (The JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia:
Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 12.
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As an aside, I recommend you read the scholarly summary on the book of Leviticus by Dr. Michael S. Heiser which is equally beneficial for understanding Leviticus in general.
Title: Think like an Israelite
http://drmsh.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Wk1-Impurity-and-Sin-2.pdf
http://drmsh.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Wk2-Sacred-Space-and-Sacrifice-Heiser-GCB.pdf
