#mitosis

so i was studying for my biology test and i started thinking about mitosis. like, what even is the point of having two stages of cell division? prophase and metaphase just seem like they're doing the same thing. but then i realized, what if it's not about the stages themselves, but about how they interact with the rest of the cell cycle? like, what if the point of mitosis is actually to ensure that the cell is prepared for the next stage of its life, rather than just splitting in two. it sounds dumb but it actually made a lot of sense to me. anyone else ever think about this?

tbh, im having trouble understanding how the spindle fibers attach to the centromeres during mitosis rn, can someone explain it to me in simple terms? i feel like im missing something obvious lol