Does anyone understand how plexamp works or is meant to work?

If anything, Plexamp is one of the more active projects (with the last update less than a week ago: Plexamp Release Notes - Plex Labs - Plex Forum).

What exactly have you tried, and where are you getting stuck? Plexamp connects to the music libraries of your server, so the core configuration happens on the server itself by setting up music libraries.