Photos App (iPhone to Macbook)

Situation: I am writing this for anyone else that will experience the same issue of trying to manually sync your photos from your iPhone to your local MacBook/iMac (etc) using USB cable. Upon trying to sync my photos, all my photos were greyed out and when clicking import on my photos app, they would not import. I called tech support and spent 2hrs troubleshooting with them via share screen and telephone. The tech could not come up with a solution why I was being blocked from seeing my photos let alone importing them to my local computer. Yes my MacBook and iPhone were running on the most up to date softwares, as I was forced to check during the 2hr troubleshooting process. She ended up telling me I would have to factory reset my phone in order to get the photos on to my MacBook. Then recommend me updating my iCloud so the photos would all fit. I ended the call because it was getting late and I was frustrated. I then proceeded to upgrade my iCloud storage to get the photos in the cloud. I currently had a 50GB plan and upgraded to 200GB iCloud plan since I was trying to import roughly 2,600 photos to my MacBook (local hard drive). The 50GB was not going to be enough storage.

Solution: All of a sudden when I plugged my iPhone back into my MacBook, having upgraded to the 200GB plan, my photos all of sudden appeared (not greyed out anymore). I could also easily import the photos from my iPhone to my MacBook. So basically even though I was trying to accomplish something that requires no cloud or internet features, I was being blocked to accomplish this task unless I upgraded my iCloud account to a higher storage rate.

I did follow up with apple the next day to ask this true or false question. Do I need to upgrade my iCloud storage in order for me to transfer photos from one local device to another? They wouldn't give me a complete answer of what I could not see/import my photos. I stayed on the phone with them being asked a slew of questions again.. I was placed on hold after 20mins of conversation and then I was hung up on. The Apple tech never tried to call me back either.

I feel like lowering my iCloud plan back to 50GB to see if it blocks me again from importing photos to my computer. Once again this task should be accomplished without iCloud or any internet connection. To me the whole situation smells funny as if apple is forcing customers to upgrade their iCloud account. It'd be great if Apple would just be up front to me and tell me yes it's a requirement but a 2hr tech support call and a follow up hang up tech support call, still no solid answer.

I hope this posting helps anyone else that faces this particular problem.