As already stated I am a numpty, so please be patient. What is WiFi is not my connection to the internet? In other words, if WiFi is not the magic fairy dust that links this iPad to the black box in the corner of my room which links to a WAN, what is it?
Your Wi-fi is your local area network LAN. Along with any locally wired devices you have. It means you can transfer files between PC’s or print stuff on your local printer. To get a connection outside of your LAN you need a router, this forwards packets of data that have no destination inside your LAN to a Wide Area Network (WAN).
The two are separate and is why you have to determine if getting on to your favourite website is a LAN issue (bad wi-fi) or a WAN issue (your ISP has cut you off)