Navigation Question

Hey people! I have just started using Lemmy and have have got a basic feel for how it works ok. The one thing that confuses me is the navigation using the exclamation mark, like '[email protected]'

All the help blogs say go to search in your home instance and type [email protected]', but why would I do that. If I know the name of the community I want why not just go to the address bar of my home instance and add '/c/[email protected]'.

Isn't that easier, with less steps? Can someone explain the benefit of the '!' addressing.

Cheers everyone!