Photos in messages

The photos stored in message threads used to be available by looking in the details of the message and you could see all of the photos, GIFs, videos, whether sent by you or the other person. Now they are stored in the cloud to save space on the device, but if you sign into iCloud to try and view them, you can’t see them there either. So the only way to view them is by downloading them (10 at a time) from the cloud. Further if you turn off iCloud back up for messages, the messages app has to “index” the photos back on to the device, I think. So my questions are where are the photos stored actually? why am I only able to view a certain number in the details section ? Is there a setting that allows me to set how many are stored in the details with the cloud back up active? I don’t understand how I just don’t have access to these when I used to be able to see all things sent in the thread… I get space storage but this seems like it should be up to the user to have both iCloud back up and the files in the details section of the thread, if they choose to.

thank for any input.