I think my confusion is about how to read the footnotes which are more than just citations. If I read them "inline" then I don't understand why they're not part

I think my confusion is about how to read the footnotes which are more than just citations. If I read them "inline" then I don't understand why they're not part of the main text. If I wait until the end of the chapter, I've lost context. I'm prepared to believe that I haven't been taught to read in the right way. But there seems to be some disagreement on what the right way is.