Why is it so difficult to NOT use iCloud? And why should I have to spend hours trying to figure it out?

lets say I have saved files in the cloud that take up a tremendous amount of space in the family share that we will on use on one device. Said device has 2tb of memory. iCloud is nearly full and now holding the family hostage to upgrading. I might add that NEARLY FULL and FULL are two different things but I won’t quibble. I purchase devices with more memory as I am tired of getting messages that the device memory is full. Now I get the ICloud is nearly full message and it just about makes using any device, be it a device used for high school, work or just fun impossible. Word, pages, ANYTHING are handicapped. I am currently going old school and backing up to an external hard drive before deleting files and photos just to be able to function. I paid more for more memory and upgraded iCloud from free to 2.99 a month. I am paying and paying and paying. Where does it end. I know eventually Apple will win and I will have to pay the 9.99 a month but I am more than frustrated here. Die hard Apple fan. Will not use anything but an Apple product but there has to be an end to the hemorrhaging of money Apple extorts from me. Don’t tell me to use some other storage cloud service because we both know that is a bs answer.