Power Query allows you, whether you use Excel or Power BI, to connect to numerous data sources, retrieve, transform, and use “refined” data to create reports. On that occasion, each step in the transformation process is recorded and, when you refresh the link to the source, the steps are repeated in the given order and you get tables of identical structure. What is a purpose of Dataflows?
Power BI is, for the most part, used for business reporting purposes, and the ultimate goal is to publish company data in the cloud, along with related reports, and then create reporting dashboards that provide the information necessary to support decision making. A free Power BI subscription can also be used for this, but I still recommend that you use (purchase) a Power BI Professional license. Why? More about this in the text that follows …