I have been trying to make my first crypto purchase for at least a week -- and this is after buying my hard wallet and setting it up. I have spent hours texting and emailing the vendor's help staff trying to get the answers to a few basic questions.

You wouldn't believe how long it took me to grasp the fact that cryptocurrency is actually not stored in the hard wallet at all. This, in turn, makes the function of the hard wallet an arcane mystery. I don't understand how it makes my crypto more secure when the crypto isn't even in it. Furthermore, I don't understand how crypto gets off the exchange and "into" the wallet (whatever that really means) when I "withdraw" it. I know there's an address involved, but I don't know how it fits into the picture and whether a different address is needed for each cryptocurrency. I don't know if I can use my manufacturer's operating software for all exchanges, some exchanges or only the exchange hosted by the manufacturer (I'm running Ledger Live on a NanoSPlus).

Without a grasp of these things, it seems extremely foolish to spend hundreds of dollars or more on this. Somehow, none of the instruction videos and explanations I've found online actually discuss these things. I'm guessing they just assume that everyone already knows the answers.

What is needed is some kind of resource that explains each step involved and how it works.