iPhone: Select, Cut and Paste Functionality? Why is it not intuitive?

I'm using an iPhone 7 and am having trouble selecting, cutting and pasting in it's applications. I used to have an earlier model and iOS, but it seems this functionality has changed over the years.

Does anyone know how to intuitively perform the above actions?

What I observe:

I place the cursor at the beginning of a word, tap on the cursor again and click "select": the entire word is selected instead of the beginning of the word. This is unexpected. In the past I recall the same action only started the selection where the cursor sits, then I would drag the second side of the selection graphic over the word.

I place the cursor anywhere, then tap the cursor again and click "select all", then the entire text dialog is selected. This seems expected. I then try to click in the middle of the selected text to eliminate the select all action and the result is that nothing occurs, the entire selection remains selected. If I tap twice in the middle of the selection a single word is selected, which is unexpected. I want to exit the select all action.

In Safari's search dialog, I tap once in the spot I want the cursor specifically in the middle of a word and the result is the cursor changes placement to the beginning of the word. I expected the cursor to move to the spot I tapped. It seems to move the cursor to a particular spot, that one needs to continuously hold a finger down and move the cursor.

My additional questions: Did this functionality change between releases of iOS over the past few years? Is there a support article which details exactly how cursor selection, select and select all works?

Thanks