TBH it do be like that when you’re a solo developer.

Branches come in after a certain level of complexity, if you need to do some kind of separate feature and you’re not sure how it would fit into the main project or something like that.

They can also be useful if you start automating things. Updating a branch can be used to signal that a commit needs testing or deployment.

And of course branches are super helpful when multiple people are involved.

[On a side note, it’s interesting we still use the “branch” terminology even though modern source control systems aren’t trees anymore.]