No worries, there's no too simple question.
The way the gated sequencer works or is modelled after is the way all classic sequencers work in modular systems for example. Not because that's usually the only place you'll find them, but that's where they originated when everything was still controlled by voltages only - in the early Moog modular systems or Buchla systems for example.
The way to think about this type of sequencer is that it's really a type of modulation source that allows for the modification of selected parameters over time or based on a pattern as there are steps involved which can of course be used rhythmically. If you have a 16 step sequencer, it will allow you to control the value of a selected parameter (be it the filter cutoff frequency, the filter resonance, the frequency of an oscillator, and so on) per step. So, for example, you could have the filter fully opened on step one, fully closed on step two, half open on step three, and so on. On the REV2, you can do this type of modulation on four tracks that all run simultaneously, but don't have to have the same length. Sequencer track one could run at the full 16 steps for example, while track 2 runs at 9 steps, track 3 at 5, and track 4 at 12, depending on where you set the reset. The purpose of the flexible step length is too make what the sequencer modulates sound less static and repetitive. In the above mentioned example, the first time the first step of track 1 would be repeated would not equal the first step of the other three tracks anymore. Instead, the individual sequencer track lengths would constantly shift towards each other, which can help making the sequence sound more arbitrary or organic, however you'd like to put it.
With the advent of MIDI and in times of DAWs, sequencers are sometimes confused with what the poly sequencer of the REV2 does. The latter is not a modulation source at all, it only lets you record notes for the playback of a melody or a couple of chords you'd like to play along to. Technically it equals recording notes with your computer via MIDI. What is recorded per step is note on and off data, velocity data, and aftertouch data, but no parameter values for modulation destinations.
And that's the main difference: On the REV2, the poly sequencer is for notes and the MIDI data typically connected to the recording of notes (like the above mentioned velocity values). The gated sequencer lets you instead control everything that's integral to synthesis like timbral changes for example. The only thing both sequencer modes have seemingly in common is that they can both affect the pitch of notes, and I guess that's what's confusing. But both do it in an entirely different way: With the poly sequencer you enter an absolute note value like C2 or E4 for example via the keyboard. With the gated sequencer you assign a track to the frequency of one or two oscillators (a modulation destination) independently from the keyboard and as a relative value, which is why no transpose feature is needed for the gated sequencer mode.
In historical terms, I guess you could also say that the poly sequencer is modelled after a self-playing piano or a so-called player piano, while the gated sequencer is a true sequencer in terms of a synthesizer, as it operates based on relative parameter values (originally: voltage amounts) that control individual parameters per step, amongst which the frequency controls for the oscillators happen to occur as well.
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