BuddyPress.org

Hi, I’m new to BuddyPress, am curious and wondered if someone could shine a light…

If I understand it correctly…
— A BuddyPress user is exactly the same thing as a WordPress user.
— But some of the user fields are editable by admin in WordPress’ Users settings…
— … whilst there is another set of profile fields that, whilst admin can create and edit the fields themselves, the information can only be edited by relevant users on the client side.
?

Why is the containment of user profile info split in this way and not accessible in one place?
Why, as an admin, can’t I access and edit all user info?

Is there any good documentation or reading matter? The Codex is rather spartan.

Thanks for the help and keep up the good work.