iOS17.5 iCloud Sync settings - turned on (again) ?

Has anyone else had this problem - I keep iCloud turned off from my Phone, however after updating it to iOS 17.5.1, the iCloud backup for photos is turned on-again ! I really wish to not use iCloud or any other Cloud storage device - why does this keep happening ? And how can I stop it permanently ?

When photos are moved over to iCloud - it's really hard to get them back onto the PC again... impossible infact - since the Sync mechanism is beyond comprehension... with an Apple Mac mini - it's sort of understandable, though very buggy.. which is why I really dislike iTunes & iCloud. I really do not like my Privacy being invaded by enabling features I had explicitly turned off. Has anyone else experienced settings changing when updating iOS versions ?