if electrical extension cords are meant to be used to connect to an outlet farther away then why is it still bad to plug certain things into them Ex: electric heaters, A/C units and so on?
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It depends on where you are. This is moslty a US issue, because the US has a bit shit electrical safety code.
The breakers in your house are intended to protect the wires inside your wall nothing more nothing less. Which of course means that if you attach an extension chord that can withstand LESS load than the wires in your wall, that extension chord isn’t protected by your house circuit breakers anymore, since you can now overload the extension chord whilst still keeping the wall wires under a safe load.
For some reason it’s perfectly legal in the US to sell extension chords with significantly lower load capability than your wall circuits, and these extension chords could be overloaded and get quite hot without your walls circuit breaker ever tripping.
That’s why it’s generally discouraged in the US to plug very high power devices, like electric heaters or A/C units, into extension chords.
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