Hi STAN_DA_MAN,
Welcome to the Apple Community.
Seems you may need to turn on, set up, and customise, just what you want iCloud to do.
Apple Support have articles online (links below) to guide you.
What is iCloud?
Find out what you can do:
Your apps and iTunes Store purchases don’t count toward your iCloud storage space,
so you need it just for things like photos, videos, files and device backups
https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mh36832/11.0/mac/11.0
What is iCloud storage?
https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/icloud/mm7983cbca2a/icloud
Set up iCloud on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208681
Use iCloud Photos on iPhone
https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/iphone/iph961b96c4d/ios
Manage your iCloud storage.
Eg: Manage your iCloud Backup
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204247
For more info:
iCloud Support
https://support.apple.com/icloud
Hope this helps you :)