An Advisor said that I cannot permanently store data on my Mac once it is uploaded to iCloud. If I close my account, the data that is uploaded is deleted. The iCloud is kidnapping my data and won't ever release? And I though iCloud was a safety gu

Anything in the cloud is also on your device. If you select "optimize storage" in iCloud Drive, you may have files offloaded into the cloud only to save space (you can download those again at any time). Offloaded files also will not backup using Time Machine or other mechanism.

iClous is a synchronization service, not offline storage.

You do know that the iCloud Drive is a syncing feature and not an off computer storage facility. Any file you put in the iCloud Drive is mirrored in your Home/Library/Mobil Documents folder.

So if you want to get files off your MBP to free up space use an external SSD like OWC's ENVOY PRO ELEKTRON or its ENVOY PRO FX.

Yes, thank you. I know it's a syncing feature but with 2 TB why can't it also be used to store stuff? I already have several external SSDs for backups but wanted an extra layer of redundancy. My question is: Why can't iCloud Drive also be used like Dropbox even if its main purpose is to sync Apple devices?

Any thoughts on why iCloud Drive wasn't designed that way? Forget the 2 TB I currently have, I was "forced" to upgrade from 5 GB to 50 GB to back up my iPad even though I only use around 5 GB of space and am not likely to use much more. That means I have 45 GB of space that I can't even use to store stuff.

Isn't there a way of offloading files to iCloud Drive? I'm currently uploading a 315 GB folder to iCloud Drive thinking I'll be able to free up 315 GB of space on my Mac.

Because that's not how it was designed to function.