With time comes wisdom – persevere.
The tip+ring is a way of getting a third footswitch out of two inputs. It is used in (for example) Digitech FS300. So, the tip connection of the jack is one switch, the ring is another, and both of them together at the same time is a third switch. Note that this needs either a special switch, or two diodes to make this happen.
Note that if you have the same switch assigned to multiple functions (as you describe) you may get confusing results. Unless you are an expert, I would recommend only one function per switch.
