What happens to documents and desktop folders with iCloud?
I want to use iCloud to share documents between all my apple devices, so I checked "documents and decktop folders" in System preferences>Apple ID>iCloud Drive>Options button. I got a message that my folders had been duplicated(?). And I don't see the folders now in my User folder. Apparently they are stored only on the iCloud drive. I saw an article from MacWorld 2018 (below) that says that all the files on my desktop and documents folder are only available on iCloud, so that if I don't have internet access, or I lose iCloud account, the documents will be lost!?
I want all my desktop and documents folders and documents available on my hard drive, with or without internet access. Will iCloud do this, or should I use another app?
Thx.
iMac 27″, macOS 11.6