[germandiago]

> I don't understand the fundamentals of how those things work, or why they were designed that way

The problem with not understanding things is that when you face a new problem or things crash or go wrong you get totally lost and do not know how to proceed at all.

Another recommendation if you want to learn is that you use a terminal and an editor. Nothing else. You will see things closer to how they work. You will be aware you are launching a script or compiling a file. You will see the output files, you will understand there is a compiled file to be run. You will see if it is native code you run it directly but if it is compiled to bytecode you need a VM, etc.

That is part of the details one must be aware of.