Hi!
I totally understand you are confused.
So, notes in FamiStudio don't really work like in FL Studio. This is partly a reflection of how the NES hardware work. When you make the NES make a sound, it literally never stops until you tell it to, or until you change the tone. That's kind of why you see that note going on forever. I totally realize that it should not be require to understand this to make a song, but that's what we have right now.
So yes, making a song will using be a lot of click, click, click and a few CTRL+click to stop the sound. I hope one day to move to a more "FL Studio-like" approach, but that will likely be a big change. Also, as far as dragging a note goes, you also cant right now, that is also something I would like to add eventually, but I have a lot on my plate right now.
Usually when I make music, I will usually click to create notes (and right click to delete them when I make a mistake) until I find the melody I like. Then i'll go and add stop notes where needed (6 clicks in this case).
As for you comment on the tutorial, I totally agree. I will likely do another round of tutorial in a couple months and I'd like it to be more hands-on... My 2 previous ones were a bit too theoretical, as you pointed out.
Please let me know if there is I have not fully answered your question.
-Mat