No, that’s not quite accurate. A distro plate is essentially the following: a regular reservoir with one IN and one OUT port. All additional ports are essentially just loops – nothing more. That means they are individual chambers with an IN and an OUT, where you have to go in and out again.
You can clearly see this if you take a closer look at the distro plate, especially the arrangement of the ports. These are small chambers, and they’re not connected to the pump. That wouldn’t make any sense either, because the water loop wouldn’t function properly in that case.
The water flow has to work like it does in a regular tube: water comes in on one side and flows out the other – no matter how you route the tubing.