Yeah, that was the point of them. I've summarized how they worked since I took one out myself but since people seem to think not paying them back is bad I'll go over how they worked again
Apply for loan at qualified bank (must have a business checking account)
When I applied I just showed the loan officer my previous year's taxes, we calculated what I qualified for. I think it was 3.5 months of payroll up to some cap which I was nowhere near
Some short period of time passes, money appears in my business account
I used that money to pay myself (basically just wrote myself a check and deposited it in my personal account twice a month)
I documented the payments and submitted them somewhere, I think my bank had a PPP portal on their website
Loan forgiven, didn't have to pay them back
The point of the loans was so that employers wouldn't just fire all their employees when Covid had the world shut down. The money had to be used for payroll, as long as it was the debt was forgiven. If people mismanaged it, used it to buy supplies/equipment/etc, or just let it sit in the account, it had to be paid back with interest. If people lied about their payroll then they owe the money back with interest on top of fraud charges, I assume this is what the 500k/$20b in flagged loans are