I've never understood GIMP's approach to copy paste either. They've made a decision that copy and paste must require as many un-intuitive steps as possible.

Most graphics programs let you select a region, copy it and then move the copy around to where you want it, the end. You can usually paste into new layer if needed.

But not in GIMP for some reason you have to copy something and 'anchor it' or convert it to a new layer before you ever see it.

This kind of thing just makes me use other software.