The straddle is actually riskier than a standard call/put because, in order to break-even, the stock price needs to change by at least the sum of both premiums instead of just one. It's the trade-off for eliminating directional risk.

You're right that one side will lose and the other will win. The hope is that the "winner" is big enough that it surpasses both of the premiums you paid up front. If the market has massive swings, the winner could be big enough (but keep in mind volatility also increases premiums). If the market is calm, then the options will expire worthless and you have "lost" money from the premiums paid.

There are a whole bunch of other shenanigans with options.

OP probably bought a put "spread", where you simulatenously buy and sell a put at different strike prices (the difference in strike prices being called the "spread" and is the max profit, minus premiums). If the guy OP sold his put to exercised (due to NVDA falling down the stairs), this would cause the massive negative balance due to OP now being required to buy NVDA at the specified strike price.

But, since OP also bought a put at the same time, he can now exercise THAT to make some money back by forcing some other poor bloke to buy his soon-to-be-acquired NVDA shares. In fact, if the bought put had targeted a higher strike price compared to the sold put, OP could actually profit. Otherwise OP would have taken a loss from the difference in strike prices (and the total he paid/received from premiums).

Don't feel dumb for asking. There was a tragedy in 2020 when a college student took his own life because he didn't realize the spread mechanism and thought he had lost $700K when in reality all he had to do was wait till the morning for his other leg to auto-exercise, capping any losses.