Yeah, pretty much this. But the law in Italy defines cheese as something made directly from milk, whereas ricotta is made mostly from whey (you can add some milk, but it's secondary).
Similarly things like mascarpone and yogurt which are not fermented using rennet can't be called cheese.
Regarding the type of whey used to make ricotta it can come from any cheese. In central Italy sheep ricotta is more prized than cow, but you can easily find buffalo and goat ricotta as well.
Stromboli is American, from Philadelphia. It was named after a movie about a Sicilian island that was popular in 1950, because they just wanted to give it an Italian sounding name.
Afaik they don't serve those in Italy or even that far away from Philadelphia. So "in the USA that can be anything" is ... I guess accurate, for a regional American dish
Stromboli is closer to folded up pizza as it typically has mozzarella cheese.