Abstract: As China’s coal production center shifts to the central and western regions and mining levels extend deeper, coal seam structures exhibit diversified and differentiated characteristics, leading to changes in gas storage and transportation patterns. It is a development trend to construct differentiated gas extraction schemes that are applicable to multiple coal seams. Currently, there is a lack of mathematical systematic analysis on the evolution process of gas desorption characteristics in coal particles/coal bodies, and there is still controversy over whether desorption curves are dominated by fractures (seepage) or pores (diffusion). Based on the competitive relationship between diffusion and seepage, the shapes of gas desorption curves presented in the literature were summarized, and their internal control mechanisms were analyzed. Furthermore, diffusion-dominated coal seams were defined, effective approaches and underlying mechanisms for gas extraction in low-gas thick coal seams and high-gas structural coal seams were discussed, and adaptive methods for gas control in diffusion-dominated coal seams were proposed. Finally, research priorities for future gas storage and transportation in diffusion-dominated coal seam were put forward. The study found that low-pressure thick coal seams in the central and western regions generally have low gas content and insufficient migration power, which can be referred to as direct diffusion bodies. Deep structural coal seams have long equivalent diffusion distances and difficult migration, which can be referred to as equivalent diffusion bodies. Diffusion-dominated coal seams have characteristics such as low-pressure sensitivity, strain sensitivity, time sensitivity, and pressure-differentiated response, which make it important to consider, increasing diffusion source power or reducing equivalent diffusion distances, forming displacement, microbial degradation matrix, surfactant surface modification techniques, and matrix body modification techniques such as hydraulic punching and protective layer mining when managing gas. In the future, it is still necessary to focus on research on diffusion mechanics models and response mechanisms, forward testing methods for diffusion coefficients, and evaluation indicators for gas extraction in diffusion-dominated coal seams. The results of this study can provide a reference for establishing a differentiated gas management system for coal seams.