It is confusing. I did the recovery. Which means I had to take my phone and iPad back to how they were when I first got them. However, usually the information from the cloud can then be reloaded onto the phone and iPad.
In my case when I try to access my iCloud account that was attached to my email to authenticate they send the last 4 digits of the phone number. It is not a number I recognize. So I can’t authenticate. And Apple support advisors say there is no way to access it unless I know the number. And I don’t.
Here is the complete history.
June 12th I had charges on my Apple Card account that I didn’t recognize I called Apple support. The person i spoke to(not sure if Apple support or Apple credit card support )but they asked for my passcode for my phone and proceeded to access my phone and said they took the credit card off so I’d have no more charges. Right after that I got messages that my account had been changed. When I tried to log in it showed that different phone number. Then several different charges were made and money was taken from my bank account by it said Apple credit. I finally resolved that issue and notified the FTC and the credit report companies.
and then tried to get the iCloud information fixed through Apple support. Finally they asked me to provide proof of purchase so they could unlock my account. Did all that but could not retrieve anything from ICloud. So my phone works my iPad works but it has none of my previous information. Which was several years of pictures which is devastating to me.