or that number represents how many tries u have left for trying out the code to unlock the network
Exactly. You can flash your phone many times. There is no upper limit.
and so REMOVE-SIMlock patch basically only confuses the phone so eventho it has network 10 (locked) you can still use other sim card in it, right?
Yes, the "unlock" patch ticks the phone, but you should see the network unlocked. So there is something wrong. You should try the unlocking procedure again...