Plugins as inserts are like guitar pedals
In the world of music production and mixing, it is common to have plugins (such as reverb) on a separate track (a bus) and send audio to that bus. Both the original audio and a version of the audio with plugins applied are sent to the same output. The signal flow looks like this:
It is commonly spouted to put certain FX on their own buses, for one reason or another.
However, if you’re friends with any guitarists, or are a guitarist yourself, you may have been exposed to GAS expressed as collecting guitar pedals. With guitar pedals, you get a signal flow like:
The original sound of the guitar is “lost” in this signal path.
If you record a guitar track, or any audio at all, you can think of using plugins on the audio track itself (“inserts”) as guitar pedals. It’s not inherently bad to not have the original signal: it might be exactly what you need!