I made an explainer video a while back here https://youtu.be/Fk2sE0ydVo8
I also had a discussion with another community member along these lines a few months ago here What does the quickstart do that I need to do myself? In there that video walks through this file https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dovholuknf/openziti-compose/main/from-scratch.sh which is the steps the express install does, narrated.
Let me know if that doesn't get you the answers you need. cheers