How to sort photos in the app on either iPhone 12 mini or iPad 4th gen

iCloud Photos syncs the Libraries of all connected devices, even if they have wildly different operating systems, so the view and operations at iCloud.com must be limited. But you have a MacBook Air running Ventura? If the Mac and the Photos app are connected to iCloud with the same Apple ID, then you can do amazing stuff to keep your albums and folders ordered. Albums can be sorted by date or by title (but not by filename.) They can also be ordered in any order you like by just dragging around thumbnails. Folders can hold albums and also folders, and the contents can be sorted by date or by name. Furthermore, with Mac Photos, you can use Smart Albums to collect together similar pictures.

Really, I do all the organizing on the Mac--there's a lot more flexibility. You should play around with it a bit and see what you think. You can get back to this community to get ideas. So, Good Luck!

katetx2001 wrote: Also, what's the difference between the title and the filename?

The file name is made up by the camera or whatever, like IMG_2451 or something like it. A title is something you make up that is more descriptive or more useful. Here is a bit of my iCloud.com:

Unfortunately, the titles don't show on the iPad or iPhone-- but they are great on the Mac and iCloud. There is another field called the caption that is shown in iOS, so I copy one into the other. The title and caption for the top picture includes "Cedar Waxwing."

Unfortunately, iCloud doesn't let you do much with the organization. Sorting is not possible in iCloud. Also, there's to editing. iCloud is more for syncing devices, and for show pictures. As you've discovered, iCloud Photos doesn't help with much else.

The following graphic describes the many ways different views, i.e. albums, smart albums, etc., can be sorted:

The albums and folders in the sidebar can be sorted as following: