Complete noob having a hard time understanding a couple things

Hello I have recently caught the electronics bug and have been working on a couple of fun projects such as CNC's and LED lighting projects. I have mainly just been following other people's tutorials so there are a couple of things that I just don't quite understand.

For my CNC project I am using an Arduino Mega with a ramps 1.4 board. The ramps board has a few stepper drivers connected to it. But there is another project I am doing where I only need to use 1 stepper motor, so I just got another ramps board and I'm using that for this project. I am pretty confused as to whether or not I actually need a ramps board for just 1 stepper motor. What exactly does the ramps board do that I would be required to use it for just 1 stepper motor instead of just connecting the stepper driver to my Arduino?

I have tried to do some research on this but its hard to find the right answers when you don't really know the proper questions to ask. I think I read something along the lines of the ramps providing a "soft start" to the steppers but I'm not really sure if that's what the actual purpose of the ramps board is.

Sorry if this is a stupid question. I look forward to learning a lot more and making a lifetime hobby out of this, and hopefully finding a way to get paid for it someday.