Yeah, that's why I used expressions like "closer to the lower levels" — you can descend in orders of abstraction/layers of reality, but it's more asymptotic or directional than anything else.

It's not like playing with an Arduino is getting me closer to understanding the underlying chemistry and physics. Which are also interesting to learn about...

But personally I think it's for the best that reality is inexhaustibly complex (from the perspective of human individuals).