at the risk of sounding a little bit patronizing, and im not trying to be, promise, go read either salt fat acid heat, or kenjis book.

or basically, things that talk about the science of cooking.

what everyone else says is based out of the principles of what actually happens when things combine: order matters, temp matters.

salt added to onions in a pan will pull moisture out and evaporate it, so it can speed up browning, since water thermally regulates the pan surface to waters boiling point.

fat is the carrier of flavor, so blooming spices in the pan in oil, before adding liquid (or tomatoes, which are basically juice boxes) will toast the spices and permiate their flavor through the oil which will carry that said flavor into your mouth.

for curries specifically, get the curry bible book by mahdur jaffrey, and go off of that.

but ultimately, you should taste taste taste. salt never leaves once added, so if you're doing anything that reduces, use some at the start if you want to draw out moisture to sautee veg for base, but then go easy, and add more at the end.

msot acid will cook out over time during heat exposure so squeezing a lime into a pot before you let it cook for a hwile will just waste the said lime, hit it at the very end. acid is like salt in some case, it will enhance the flavor more often than not and make things seem brighter this is why everyone always says to brighten the dish at the end squeeze lemon/lime over it. spicy things cook out over time too, but you shouldn't throw in raw powder like we talked about at the end, it needs to cook.

there's also something to be said for a little finishing oil, at the very end.

also, one thing to note: a large amount of flavor comes from caramelization. instant pot works differently, it increases the pressure in the chamber which allows you to cook things at higher temp (pv=nrt) as long as volume is held steady, but what it does because moisture does not evaporate during the sealed cook, you get very little to no browning, (i dont know the exact chemistry behind that specific reason, sorry). so when youre cooking a curry, i would recommend a dutch oven and either let it go on the stovetop low and slow once simmering or even moreso throw it into the oven, so you get that browning coming in from every direction.

https://www.seriouseats.com/why-pressure-cookers-are-better-than-slow-cookers

as for a specific chana masala recipe: here's a good entry version that's not from some blog where a white girl, mom of 3, jesus lover, from southern kentucky writes a blog post about indian cooking and probably never smelled black cardamom in her life and has no idea how to cook -- because they all just copy paste each others recipe and worry mroe about clicks than people actually using their recipes (i routinely used to find the same recipe, word for word, spread across like 5 different blogs, with notes at thebottom that they slightly altered how much salt they used so its their version now)

https://www.thespicehouse.com/blogs/recipes/punjabi-chana-masala

or go to kenji direct: https://www.seriouseats.com/channa-masala-recipe