Listening is indirect help, passive help. It’s helping simply by existing
Not in my experience. The listener is helping the speaker organize their thoughts, work through their feelings, and (in some cases) decide on a course of action. The listener needs to ask questions, understand the speaker, and help them sort things out.
In a spouse or friend situation, the listener is probably also providing emotional support. Which can be immensely helpful, since it validates the speaker.
There’s also follow up. The listener should talk to the speaker and see how their feelings have evolved.
I didn’t see Star Wars until I was in my twenties. It isn’t a great set of movies. A lot of people really like it. And now power to them! But it’s not a great conversational gambit.
If it was a heist movie, then the lead up could be in 1942 Paris - the thieves are anti-Nazi resistance and Allied spies, then, when it comes time for the theft to occur, it would switch to some third millennia setting on a space station. All the characters are the same. The Nazi general who has gathered gold from people sent to concentration camps is now the governor of the heavy helium mining operation (I dunno), played by the same actor, with a different accent, referring to the same events that happened previously. Then it’d switch to some other setting for the escape - but it would be the same characters with the same motivations/foibles/history.