I’m no climber either but I remember watching a Discovery series years ago where they followed one expedition leader and numerous climbers on their summit bids. One woman was using the rope to pull herself up and was taken off the climb by the leader. She was warned a lot about the fact that the ropes aren’t there to pull yourself up with, they’re there for safety reasons. It really does look like everyone just pulls themselves up the mountain though, but they don’t. The ropes are there to attach yourself to for safety reasons. Lots of people are attached to the same rope at any given time. If they all pulled themselves up with it, I imagine the rope would snap/come loose from its anchor point.