I do not want to use the ICloud any more with it's outrageous monthly fee

These are volunteer user community forums, so nobody here has anything to do with the fess Apple charges for anything.

And I don’t see any change in pricing from what they started charging back in 2015? -> iCloud storage plans and pricing - Apple Support

I have always paid $0.99/month, for years, and that is still the current price for 50GB in the USA.

You can always downgrade to the free 5GB plan -> Downgrade your iCloud storage - Apple Support

I’ve not received any such email. Are you sure it was from Apple and not a scam/spam email?

There is nothing in any of the tech news sites about a fee increase either.