How to transfer 50K+ photos and videos to my external hard drive (PC)

I am currently paying for 2TB iCloud space which I only use 300 GB or less. So I want to free up some space both in my iPhone and iCloud. Following are the issues quite frustrate me:

Issue 1, when I tried to download the photos and videos from iCloud website, I need to manually select maximum 1000 photos each time to download, meaning I will have to repeat this process 50 times.

Issue 2, I tried iCloud software for Windows as well. The speed to download 300 photos from iCloud is so slow that it has already taken 2hours+. I cannot imagine how long for downloading 50k photos and videos.

Issue 3, I tried to transfer photos directly from iPhone to my PC by using Window's photo app. But there was always an issue, transfer process was always interrupted and I will have to repeat.

Issue 4, I tried this method but not sure if it is best option. After connecting my iPhone to PC, I went directly to the photo album folders to cut and paste photos among 40+ folders. Again it is another lengthy process. T-T

I hope anyone can give me a good advise on how to fast transfer 50k+ photos to external hard drive and remove them from iCloud fast to save space. Thank you in advance. ^^