sending files to icloud drive, still hardive is full. why cant i just send files to icloud drive and free up my hardrive?

If you have too many photos stored on your phone, deleting the photos on the phone is the only way to free space on the phone.

But since the photo data deleted from the phone will also be deleted from iCloud, copy the photos to your computer before:

Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support

You could optimize your Mac's storage: https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/system-information/sysp4ee93ca4/10.14/mac/10.15 (posted earlier).

But, honestly, I hate this idea. iCloud simply is not a good backup alternative especially for lots of GBs. It is basically a syncing device. I would remove many infrequently used files/photos from my Mac and back them up in two places, a readily available external drive and an alternative cloud. I like Dropbox Plus.

In system preferences > iCloud , click on iCloud Drive , in front of options button see the desktops and documents section - the documents and files ( huge sized documents and files are flooded ) and occupied most of the space , that's why you can't add more files into it see the article https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT203052 ( you can delete unwanted files/ documents or move to download folder or can archive them https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchl1a02d711/10.14/mac/10.14

See the section in the article - If your files don't update to iCloud Drive .

See some articles to reduce the data https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204247

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/macbook-air/apdb468896e0/2019/mac/10.14.5

https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT206996

https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/system-information/syspf5a64aa6/mac

Here is how to free up space: https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/system-information/sysp4ee93ca4/10.14/mac/10.15

i wish i could have the freedom to move my data where i want, when i want, how i want

Then iCloud is not the best service for you.

what happened to freedoms

You are certainly free to find another cloud service that better suits your needs.

For what you want, try Dropbox or One Drive.