iOS 14 ruined Photo Transferring (Windows 10)

I spent FOUR HOURS on the phone with Apple tech support regarding this issue, about two weeks ago. I have an iPhone 11 with the latest iOS update. I did everything he suggested. In the end, he gave up and admitted that there is no actual fix or workaround at this time. The things tried:

All the basics - cables, USB ports, drivers, etc.

Updating my version of Windows on 3 different machines.

Rebooting the phone and PC at the same time while connected.

Changing photo settings, file types, iCloud settings, and so on.

Installing the latest version of iTunes on all 3 machines.

...and several other things.

My issue is the same as listed by others. Windows Photo will occasionally see the phone via usb, and may transfer up to 3 random pictures, but then errors out. This is after several YEARS of successfully transferring photos in this way. The ONLY change was the iOS 14 update. If I take photos on my old iPhone 6Plus, running iOS 11-ish, it still works like a champ - Every. Single. Time.

Of course, iTunes is useless for photos: you can upload them from the PC to the phone, but not from the phone to the PC. I didn’t even know this until the support guy told me.

The tech support guy’s admission was very concerning - Apple knows it’s an issue and has no intention of fixing it. Considering that I use my phone for taking tons of pictures at work that have to be transferred to my work PC, this is a huge deal for me. For the first time ever, I’m considering a switch to Android - which I hate - but if Apple is going so far as to lock down even photos, then I guess I’m done.

This is almost as disappointing to me as all the canned responses on using Windows Photo and downloading photos from iCloud and checking your USB port and cable and so on. Linking/copying this same thing over and over does not fix the issue. It just shows that you’re not paying attention to the problem.