iPad Photos import from SD card says not enough space…when there is LOADS of space!

Very disappointed Apple appear to have done nothing about this, when clearly many, many people are suffering from the same problem.

do I really have to lug my £4K MacBookPro around just to access the photos from my camera! Ridiculous! But my iPad won’t let me transfer them, claiming not enough space. I have nearly 100GB free on my iPad. 100s of GB free in my Apple storage plan, and only need about 4GB to download the photos. But can’t do it! Seriously annoying.

only tip I saw was to copy from card to general iPad storage, then import from storage into photos. Then delete pics from storage so they’re not on the iPad twice. Guess I’ll try that. But what a faff. Is there really no better way?