its crazy to me the amount of people who don't understand how a rocket actually reaches orbit

They think just go up VERY FAST.

Nobody thinks about how once you get up there you still need to incline your ascent so that your speed is fast enough so that as you "fall" the surface curves away at the same rate.

So funny how non intuitive orbital mechanics is to creatures which were evolved in an environment where it is not common when in reality, orbital motion out in the universe is the most common situation in 99.9999999999999999999% of circumstances.