Evernote to Apple Notes user, question about pdf w/in note, backup ?

I finally gave up on evernote. The list of negatives and fact that my evernote specific scansnap scanner is no longer supported (is now a "regular" scansnap) was the final straw. With 5,458 notes the conversion has been for the most part seamless. Here are the issues/questions I have, hope someone can help:

1. All notes are syncing and showing up on my MacBook, iPhone 12pro, iPad pro, and iCloud (online) account. 3,999 notes are showing on my iPad mini. After a 2+ hour call with apple support the thought is that the iPad mini is running iPadOS 14.2, which is the most updated software and the iPhone and iPad pro are running iOs 14.1. I was advised not to update my iPhone and iPad pro because then my notes may not sync (have the same issue that the iPad mini is having). For those that say give more time: it's been 2weeks since conversion, no change in number of notes. I have tried all the steps of, closing notes, hard reset, and logging out of iCloud, and even erasing iPad and setting up as new. Any thoughts here??
2. 99% of my notes are pdf's. My workflow with evernote was scan document, tag, file in notebook. I used evernote as a digital file cabinet for business and personal. Will the iCloud backup, backup those pdf files within the note?
3. I am trying to figure a solution for a local backup. I have tried to export note as a pdf and the pdf within the note no longer shows up. Any advice on how to backup notes locally and still keep the pdf file in the note (hope my explanation makes sense)
4. I like the pdf files in a note for ease of search and I right text in the note if needed, maybe I just need to move all these pdf files to iCloud drive?

THANKS FOR THE HELP!!!