We always only have 2 choices at a time, though they tend to come in bundles, creating the illusion that we have multiple choices. Regardless of the network, this will always hold true. Simplifying our perception of the networks and the systems will lead us to a deeper understanding of the choices available at any point within the system and, ultimately, enable us to disintermediate the systems.
I would say it can be a bit deceiving to understand these systems as inputs, "hidden" and outputs. In reality, there is a previous choice which had an outcome (the input), a current choice and the outcome of the current choice (the output), which leads to the future choices. The "hidden" part can be better understood as "processing", which is essentially a rule that dictates how a choice between 2 alternatives is to be made. Ultimately, we perceive those systems as a collection of inputs, processes and outputs, and there can be many steps to a process before an "input" is fully transformed into an "output".