I thought that might be the case.

In Word, the term "section" has an extremely specific meaning. A new blank document consists of one section. As section breaks are added the number of sections increases.

What you are referring to as a "section" is, as you identify in your post, a "heading level". Word has a number of predefined bookmarks (see Predefined Bookmarks | Microsoft Learn), one of which will give you the heading level. For an example of usage see https://www.msofficeforums.com/word-...selection.html