VPN Status

I have Express VPN installed and included in my Firefox browser as an extension. I usually need to 'connect' the VPN following, for example, overnight sleep periods. No problem with this; all seems to work fine.

I had a few probs yesterday when trying to watch movies via my Apple TV box (I will enter a separate query for this) and decided to go through my network stuff this morning.

So, I opened my System Preferences and selected Network and was presented with the usual list of ,networks, down the left of the dialogue box.

WiFi was shown as connected; LPSS1 and 2, Thunderbridge and Bluetooth both shown disconnected.

At the bottom of the list Express VPN was shown as disconnected, even though I had connected the VPN via my browser.

Can some one explain what the dialogue box list really means with respect to my VPN app?

I did actually use the controls available to connect the Express VPN from the network dialogue box and the icon showed it was connected, alongside the Express VPN icon. However I could not get an internet connection with this latter VPN initiated. When I disconnected the 'network VPN' I got an immediate internet connection.