Proxy and Reverse-Proxy are just networking terminology. It helps to visualize it as between client and server.

For simplicity Client refers to users with devices (computer/mobile/RaspBerryPi); and Server refers to computer/host that serves the content

Proxy: The Server does not know who is the Client

Reverse-Proxy: The Client does not know which one is the Server

Benefits of Proxy

1. Anonymity
2. Internet Service Provider generally does this
3. Caching
4. Block unwanted site
5. GeoFancing (think of it as VPN. i.e.: NordVPN)

Benefits of Reverse-Proxy

1. Load Balancing (server scaling up and down)
2. Caching
3. Isolating internal traffic
4. Logging
5. Canary development

Note: Read up on High Availability (HA Proxy)