Do I need to understand crypto, or own a wallet, to use Creta?

No. An email address is enough to create a Creta account and use the apps, and you can also sign up with Google or Apple. Nothing asks you for a wallet at sign-up.

A wallet only becomes relevant when you want to hold or trade something on-chain — buying or selling an NFT, for example. You can connect one at that point, and the app walks you through it. Until then you can ignore that side of Creta entirely.

One rule that never changes: nobody at Creta will ever ask for a recovery phrase or a private key, and anyone who does is trying to rob you.