As a layman, I always thought it was just simpler to just think of how conduction works in practice. By that I mean, for electricity to flow between two pieces

As a layman, I always thought it was just simpler to just think of how conduction works in practice. By that I mean, for electricity to flow between two pieces of conducting wire, they need to be touching. If there is an air gap between two pieces of the wire, no electricity flows and the circuit is considered to be open. If you fill that gap with something conductive, then the circuit is closed and electricity flows. So how does a transistor do this? Simple, by placing a semiconductor in for the gap. Now if you add electricity to that semiconductor (and change it's conductance), it's like you're filling in that gap using electricity itself. If you don't, then it's like the gap remains filled with air... Ergo, it's like connecting a gap between two pieces of wire, by using electricity itself to bridge the gap (or not depending on which state it is you want).