What you need to understand is that in Japanese adjectives has comparison quality by itself. If we say something like 高い, then technically it can be both “tall” and “taller”. The latter “taller” is more common with a degree like “3メトル高い” and even more so if we compare with something else. To compare with other things we can use より, more than something, or we can split on sides like 方, for example, 私の方が彼女より5cm背が高い “I’m 5cm taller than her”. What sides to mention is optional, it can be neither when obvious, or it can be either の方 or より.
ほど is similar, but it means degree/extent. With ません it means something isn’t up to certain degree like Xほど高くありません “not as tall as X”. 高くありません is a way to describe adjectives, in more casual form it’s 高くない.
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What you need to understand is that in Japanese adjectives has comparison quality by itself. If we say something like 高い, then technically it can be both “tall” and “taller”. The latter “taller” is more common with a degree like “3メトル高い” and even more so if we compare with something else. To compare with other things we can use より, more than something, or we can split on sides like 方, for example, 私の方が彼女より5cm背が高い “I’m 5cm taller than her”. What sides to mention is optional, it can be neither when obvious, or it can be either の方 or より.
ほど is similar, but it means degree/extent. With ません it means something isn’t up to certain degree like Xほど高くありません “not as tall as X”. 高くありません is a way to describe adjectives, in more casual form it’s 高くない.