Hi so when i want to receive some btc my hardware wallet creates a new address. I can then send the btc to that new address. so my total btc is listed as a collection of received btc at different addresses. What i don't understand is, if my seed words unlock one address, how do all these generated addresses get restored if i lose my hardware wallet. Hope that makes sense!
With hardware wallets that are HD wallets, you will be able to create many child private keys from a wallet seed phrase and a master private key.
See more details.
https://learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/keys/hd-wallets/