I found iCloud is only confusing if you over think it. This is somewhat easy to do because they try to make it so simple it becomes difficult again, at least for me. You MIGHT have the option available to you to do what you are looking to do, I'll explain at the end.
No matter how much you fight it and how silly it seems eventually you'll be paying cloud storage and it will just be another monthly micro subscription.
Even the "free" options available today tend to come at an expense. For example, DropBox will have you advertise for them to friends and family to get more "free" space. That is like saying your job gives you free money at the end of the week.
For Googles "free" storage....
The cost is degraded quality. Most people will find the difference negligible and for photos taken from the iPhone I agree. However if they are imported from other cameras or they are 4k video the degradation can be significant. Depending on what you planned on doing with this files such as editing they can be completely ruined. Google does have an "original quality" setting however that is not "free". Googles cloud storage prices are comparable to Apples with the added benefits of 15gb free, savings option if you pay for the entire year in advance, and larger storage tiers.
Like I said at the beginning, you MIGHT have a solution to your issue already available on your account and devices. Its a feature called "my photo stream", this is a legacy feature that offers you the ability to automatically upload photos to iCloud without any impact to your personal iCloud storage. Like other companies that offer "free" cloud storage this has caveats too. Photo quality when uploaded from an iOS devices is degraded...ahem..."optimized", however when uploaded from a PC or Mac you get full resolution. Photos are stored for 30 days before they are removed from the cloud. You have a limit of 1000 photos, your 1001st photo will remove the first one.
That may sound complicated and/or similar to iCloud Photos however its very different, this is how to use it after you turn it on in settings:
You get a new album called 'my photo stream' in the photos app
Take a photo with and iOS device or import an image to Photos on a Mac.
That photo is saved to the device it was taken on.
That same photo is also uploaded to Apples servers automatically.
On other devices (after you turn it on) you'll be able to view the 'My Photo Stream' album.
You can manually download to other devices from there.
Keep in mind the My Photo Stream album is just a view port to your photos on Apples servers. If you want a copy on a specific device you'll need to save it manually from that device.
Where iCloud Photo Library varies from My Photo Stream is it cost you iCloud storage space. However in return all your photo galleries are matched between all your devices automatically. All your images and videos are stored on your iCloud and synced to your other devices at full resolution, color depth and retain all supported metadata. You are also given the option to optimize device storage by storing a lower quality version temporarily which will download the original when view or share it.
What I do turn 'My Photo Stream' off and 'iCloud Photos' on. I have all my iOS devices and my MBP set to 'optimize storage' for photos and my iMac set to download the original. By doing this I have an original quality copy on my iMac and in iCloud but I do have access to the original quality copies from all my devices at anytime.
I do pay 3 dollars a month for 200gb of iCloud storage but I not only have a lot of photos/videos but I use shared desktops, documents and files on my Macs. The convenience of having all my files, photos and videos anywhere I am using any device I own is worth the expense, for me anyway. Dropping a 5gb file on my desktop at home and it being on my desktop at work before I can get there has saved me a ton of headaches.
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I don’t know why so many people complain about iCloud Photos. I have over 28,000 photos and videos and it works admirably for me. I keep the full size photos on my iMac, which then syncs to my MacBook, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV. It works perfectly for me.
It's generally people with much larger libraries (50gb+). I've personally never had an issue either though.
I think the biggest problem with iCloud Photos is the lack of understanding the average customer has. We went from My Photo Stream is which essentially a different copy of the same photo to iCloud photo which is more of a tool/extension of iOS/MacOS. I could delete a photo from my phone and still have it in photo stream, now if I delete a photo it will delete from my personal iPad, my work iPad, my iPhone, my MBP, and my iMac. that could be catastrophic for someone that just didn't want a specific image on their iPhone.
Once you realize its an extension of your device(s) and it will sync ANY action including deleting and editing the easier it becomes.
