Really confused about pages and templates

I feel really stupid for asking this, but I’m going to ask anyway. Please be kind as I honestly want to understand.

I am having such a hard time understanding how pages and templates operate on the WP/PP platform. I think my problem is that I have used other website builders and the language means something different. For example, a template to me is the overall design of the website, what WP calls a Theme I guess. And a page is just a page. Add content to it and it’s still a page. No need for a template or anything else.

In WP, why do I need a template as well as a page? Or is this a PP thing? This is my first WP website so I don’t really understand the differences.

Under Templates, I am seeing 3 about-us pages each with a different date.

I also have 3 home pages: one called Home, one called Homepage and one called Home Page Test. Each has different content.

Obviously I have created all of these (by accident) as I try to understand how pages are built, but it’s apparent that I’m just not getting it, else why do I essentially have 3 of each page name? And why are they templates and not pages?

Under the Pages section, I see an About page and above that another About page called About – Elementor. I also see a Privacy page, and below that one called Privacy Policy – Privacy Policy Page, Elementor.

Yet there is only one Home page under the Pages section. It’s called Page – Homepage – Elementor.

Are these pages different from the templates with similar names? If they are the same, why do I need both? And if they are different, what purpose does each serve?

When I create a page, why do I need to link it to a template? Can I not just add content to an actual page, rather than a template?

I’m sure this is not so difficult to understand, but I’m just not grasping it and watching the tutorials only seems to be confusing me more. Can anyone explain to me in simple language why I need a page AND a template, and why (and when) I need to link them together?

Or maybe I need a basic WP tutorial to understand this…in that case perhaps someone can refer me to a good one? I’ve always heard that WP is so easy to use, so I really feel like a dummy here….