Protractor basic fundamental questions - low on the learning curve

After working with Eclipse/JUnit/webdriver for few months, and now, trying to come up to speed with Protractor, I am forced to fall back and submit some basic questions for you java/js experts.

1. 
   

   Why in Protractor, do I have to invoke direct reference of "browser.driver." when testing Non-Angular web pages versus in Eclipse/Junit/weddriver I just instantiate the webdriver object?

   
   


2. 
   

   In Protractor, when referencing the "browser.driver" directly, do I always have to use the element finder method "browser.driver.findElement"(by." or is the method overloaded such that "browser.driver.element(By." will also work?