I see the telekinesis GUI when I hold the hammer and look at entities.

What I want to know is; that gui shows up when I look at (for example) ore but does NOT allow me to move it; then of course if I try and move a tree it works.

THEN if I look at Ore and use the /tls command it moves...

Can someone help me understand the difference between these to ways to use Telekinesis (hammer without /tls and with /tls).  I tried finding it in the plugin page but failed to; but I might be blind :)

That sounds like another plugin, this one has no GUI and does not work with a hammer. This plugin uses the /tls command