"indeed..but actually moreso like a "Server" .... "
Think of your Google Voice number as a Server and all of your other phone numbers as clients fed by the Google Voice.
It took me a year before I figured out the value it could have too...
but another cool thing (at least when it first came out) is that you can pick your own number...so for me, I picked a number with an area code in NC so that my parents could call me without using long distance....again...this was back when that was still a thing lol....