On the other hand, your beliefs are only a map of how the world is. The world remains even if you don't have beliefs about it.

Your beliefs shape the world though, if you allow high-level concepts to affect low-level ones. Aside from being made of the world in the first place, your actions will follow in part from your beliefs. If you don't allow high-level concepts to affect low-level ones, then verbalized preference does not cause formalized preferences to exist.