Download my iCloud photos to Photos on macbook pro

Is it possible to download my iCloud photos (incl livestream) to Photos on macbook pro without having to upload my entire Macbook pro Photos library? I have been forced to upgrade my iCloud account to 50gb due to a connectivity issue with Iphone 12pro to Macbook Pro, and now the only way to get my photos from my iphone is to use iCloud. However, activating my iCloud in Photos on my macbook pro, tells my that I have to upload my "entire" Photos library which is triple the size of my Iphone icloud photos library. It has been building over the years, as I have been comfortably importing my iphone photos every 2-3 months.

Now it seems that I am not only forced to have a workable portion of my current Iphone photos, but also forced to have EVERYTHING in my icloud to even access my photos.

Is this really the case?

ps. for the connectivity issue, I have all workarounds (MobileDeviceUpdater - reinstalling everything - checking the latest versions of itunes and macos, etc etc ) > spending three days looking for a solution. Somebody mentioned in the forums about a secret "patch" installation...? really, I am hacking my computer now to make this work?

I am beginning to think that upgrading from Iphone X to Iphone 12 pro is the worst decision I have every made. The lidar cam cool, but the troubles this phone is giving is simply just not worth the hazzle!!!