Hi. I'm completely baffled when I look at a GitHub page - how do you know what all the files do? Example below for Pika Backup
It depends which language they are written in. But all of them are small pieces of a bigger applications, so you can if you will inspect each piece.
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That's the software equivalent of the various components under the hood of a car. If you are not interested in software development, you can ignore those.
Developers like to use websites that are meant for code collaboration because it's easier for them, and they're free to use. It's disorienting to people new to the world because they're probably expecting a nice landing page with buttons to navigate here or there... but that costs extra time, effort and maybe even money to maintain.
A few notable file that you will commonly find and might be of interest are CHANELOG or CONTRIBUTING. To the right there's a link to the Releases page. In this case, that seems to be empty but that's where you might be able to find different versions of the software and sometimes direct downloads.
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Often if a developer has no "main" website for end users, they'll include instructions below the list of files. For example, AUTOMATIC1111, a popular frontend for StableDiffusion and Flux image generation AI, has lots of information below: GitHub - AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui: Stable Diffusion web UI.
Other times a developer might maintain a github page, but still have another site they actually intend end users to go through. For example, Bottles and Heroic.
Looking at PikaBackup itself, its gitlab page has instructions and links under the files list, so if you don't code, just ignore the files list completely; it's for developers.
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This is a super valid question.
I'm not a developer, but I work in tech (and routinely use GitHub for different purposes). Even I get annoyed when developers go all "LOOK AT MY NEW PROJECT" and all they link to is the GitHub project page.
Like, I get it, maybe it's meant for developers. But if you build something for end users who may not be tech-savvy, at least have the decency to create a simple homepage. 
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I agree completely. I'm a software tester professionally and my closest friends are both coders. Github is a very valuable tool and not at all designed for end users or for software distribution. I mentioned two programs I use above that "do it right," and in the case of Pika Backup, it does have a landing page on GNOME's website: Pika Backup – Apps for GNOME.
Not all do though, and it would be better if they would provide something, at least unless their project is intended only for developers, like a library or something.
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