How do the lower leagues of the English rugby union system work?

This may be a dumb question, but I've just really been diving into Premiership rugby this year and was blown away after seeing the astounding number of levels (and the number of clubs at each one) in the English rugby system. I had no clue that there was such a thing as a Level 11 club... which made me think: surely these clubs are not able to pay their players? Perhaps they can afford a stipend or two, but with Premiership clubs having financial woes, I can't imagine the market is big enough to fund the clubs past maybe Level 4 or so?

My assumption would be that every level is of course eligible to get paid, but the reality is that most of the lower clubs are comprised of amateurs doing it for the love of the game and the long-shot chance to be called up to a higher level (a path that could eventually lead to them getting paid). Is this close to reality or am I way off-base?

Appreciate any insight. To be clear, I think it's AWESOME that there are so many teams competing and do not mean any offense to these smaller clubs... rather it just really upended some assumptions I had about the overall size of the sport across England.