In the past it used to work the way the parent comment is describing. The confusion is understandable. Apple basically got rid of macos and replaced most of it with things from ios in 2020, a lot changed.

Your comment is overbroad as written, but it is close to true about the boot chain. The Apple Platform Security Guide [1] says: “When a Mac with Apple silicon is turned on, it performs a boot process much like that of iPhone and iPad.”

[1]: https://support.apple.com/guide/security/boot-process-secac7...