When you minimize a window, it disappears, period.
It becomes an icon on the right side of the Dock unless you set the "Minimize windows into application icon" option.
There's a very explicit animation of where it goes, that macOS is/was famous for (the "genie" effect).
And all windows of an app can be accessed by right-clicking on its Dock icon, or its windows menu, or Control+F3.
When you minimize a window, it disappears, period.
It becomes an icon on the right side of the Dock unless you set the "Minimize windows into application icon" option.
There's a very explicit animation of where it goes, that macOS is/was famous for (the "genie" effect).
And all windows of an app can be accessed by right-clicking on its Dock icon, or its windows menu, or Control+F3.