I think it's kinda interesting that there's a whole universal force that kinda goes uncommented upon in popular physics. I also don't know anything about the strong nuclear force, but I heard someone say once that it's actually just electromagnetism on a small scale? If there was, like, a good documentary that centers the history and experiments that lead researchers to conclude the existence of these things, that would be helpful. Being able to situate research in historical context really goes a long way to getting my head around a concept.
Yeah I mean a lot of the time it is, although sometimes the waveform becomes localised enough that things do behave pretty particle like. For example in the ESEM chemistry shit I did electrons really do behave like billiard balls bashing into shit and ionising it. Ion bombardment is another case like in lithography or sputtering.
I think keeping the dual nature of matter in mind is very useful, but also models are just models and you have to keep your assumptions in mind or you get bitten.