Synced Media: Please help me reduce this on iPad so I have room to update iOS

Thanks for the response, but could you help me specifically deal with the two largest categories of storage, Synced Media and Music?

I had offloaded the Music app to the Cloud for the last update. But it still appears as 125 GB of physical storage on my iPad. When I click on Music in iPad Storage it acknowledges I had offloaded the Music app and gives me an option to Reinstall App.

Why does it take up so much storage on my iPad if I've offloaded it? Given that it's already in the Cloud, how do I remove this massive chunk from the iPad? I don't need it on my iPad when it's already all on my iMac, on my iPhone, and in the Cloud. I don't need to play my Music library from the iPad.

And then, as the title of my question indicates, I don't have any idea what Synced Media is or why I would need it considering that it's still registering 125 GB of iPad storage for Music and 12 GB for Photos.

Can I edit, temporarily turn off, or opt out of Synced Media to save space?

It seems as though it would best be an either/or: either I have Music and Photos duplicatively stored physically on the iPad (as well as the iPhone, where most of them were actually taken) and they're also syncing in the Cloud so I don't need 87 GB for Synced Media on the iPad too, or I would have the Synced Media thing communicating with the Cloud and then Music wouldn't be taking up 125 GB of iPad storage.

This is just an incremental point update, and it says it requires 7.8 GB of space.

Why do I need 125 GB of associated data of the Music app on my iPad—more than half the available storage of the entire device—if all my music is stored in the Cloud?

On my iPad in Music under iPad Storage, it says "All Songs" are ~210 GB. ~125 GB of associated data + ~87 GB of Synced Media comes pretty close to ~210 GB.

On my iPhone in iPhone Storage, it says Music is ~4 GB and Synced Media is 13 GB.

On my iMac in Storage, it says Music is ~443 MB — that's megabytes, not Gigabytes — and I don't see Synced Media. (However, there iCloud Drive is ~400 GB.)

Why is all this Music app data different on every device when they're all connected to the same Apple ID and Music account?

Why do I need 125 GB of associated data of the Music app on my iPad—more than half the available storage of the entire device—if all my music is stored in the Cloud?

On my iPad in Music under iPad Storage, it says "All Songs" are ~210 GB. ~125 GB of associated data + ~87 GB of Synced Media comes pretty close to ~210 GB.

On my iPhone in iPhone Storage, it says Music is ~4 GB and Synced Media is 13 GB.

On my iMac in Storage, it says Music is ~443 MB — that's megabytes, not Gigabytes — and I don't see Synced Media. (However, there iCloud Drive is ~400 GB, whereas it's 4 and 5 GB on the mobile devices.)

Why is all this Music app data different on every device when they're all connected to the same Apple ID and Music account?

Your response was timestamped 7:16 and I read it and was responding to it with my posts of 7:47 and 7:51 (which I'd intended as an edit and not a double-post). Somehow, your post now appears after those posts as if it is a reply to them but it is not.

I'm asking for more detail about the "associated data" you refer to, and how to reduce it—without, obviously, preventing me from playing music from the Cloud on the iPad.