Is qbittorrent an open portal to my machine?

Hi,

Lo!  These many, many years of computerizing and I've never even TOUCHED a torrent!  It all sounded a bit too sketchy to me.

But, I'm wading in and I've installed an application called qbitorrent - https://www.qbittorrent.org/

I applied the safety suggestions here already: https://cyberwaters.com/is-qbittorrent-safe/

And, I have a VPN.

So, two-part question, please: are there any OTHER things I can do to make qbitorrent more safe?  (Other than NOT torrenting, of course.)  Suggested expert configurations, or even other apps I should use in concert?

Second, I've got a ROUGH idea of how peer-to-peer works.  So, by installing a program like qbitorrent...and I making my own machine a peer in these transactions?  Or, only a shopper.  My thinking here is that, if by trying to use a torrent app like qbitorrent, the app itself by default turns my own machine into a peer on the network, then I'd be less interested in that.

I guess, asked another way, my question is: in using qbitorrent, am I just a downloader of things that have a torrent address?  Or, does the app also put my files / machine onto the shared roadway?

Sincerely,

OT