redux - What is the point of Redux Promise and Redux Promise Middleware?

Question

I've searched high and low but can't find a clear answer.

I've managed to wrap my head around the mechanics of Redux, but when I've come to the point of API calls and async action creators, I'm stuck with middleware in context of Promises.

Can you help me get the mess right?

Cotradictory pieces of the puzzle giving me headache:

1. One of YT tutorials says that natively Redux dispatch method does not support promises returned from action creators--hence the need for Redux Promise library (I know the project is probably dead now and the continuation is Redux Promise Middleware).

2. Dan says in "What is the difference between redux-thunk and redux-promise?" I can use promises even without middleware--just manage them in the action creator.

3. In other answers I found examples of using thunks where the action creator returned a... promise (later is was processed in the caller /dispatch(myActionCreator(params).then(...)/ So a promise can be returned by a thunk WITHOUT any redux-promise lib..?

4. In "What is the difference between redux-thunk and redux-promise?", the accepted answer states Redux Thunk returns functions, whereas Redux Promise returns promises.. what the heck?

To wrap it up: what's the point of using Redux Promise or Redux Promise Middleware? Why does Redux alone not natively support promises?

Update:

I've just realized that in point 3 above I overlooked then() being attached to dispatch and not included in dispatch() args.