How to best transfer Iphone pics to PC

I got the Iphone because of the great camera and editing capabilities on the phone, but now I realize that I likely made a HUGE mistake.

In my research I found that there are SEVERAL files for EACH image and that you lose the edits if you move the pics to a PC.

Is this really true?

At this point I can't even figure out WHERE ALL the pics are and no matter how many times I transfer them off the phone, it seems like they magically reappear. Cloud backup?

Does Apple have something like a file manager (Windows Explorer) with bookmarks or a way to somehow automate the cumbersome moving of pics from the phone to my notebook and select the files to move?

Thanks for any pointers!