I have read many posts with advice on the question of the need for iCloud storage, but when the phone has much more storage than the iCloud provides I.e I have 1 terabyte on my phone and pay for 500 gb of cloud storage. I do not need to share on other devices so can I just store all on my phone?
iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 16
There is no requirement to use iCloud for storage or syncing but if your iPhone is lost, stolen, or broken and you don't have a copy of your photos, contacts and other data somewhere else they would be lost forever.
If you don't want to sync and/or backup to iCloud, another option would be to backup to a computer. See: How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
There is no requirement to use iCloud for storage or syncing but if your iPhone is lost, stolen, or broken and you don't have a copy of your photos, contacts and other data somewhere else they would be lost forever.
If you don't want to sync and/or backup to iCloud, another option would be to backup to a computer. See: How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support
Phone storage
