Stop iCloud Drive from Optimizing Files on Mac? Maybe Related—Finder Search Not Working

I tend link as much as possible to iCloud because of repeated instances of device destruction and the loss of anything that wasn't saved on there. However, I’m not a fan of my laptop automatically optimizing anything that's stored locally on here. I can guess why it's happening (I have over 90,000 items on my desktop alone), but it’s frustrating when I need to quickly browse through files, only to have each one load individually.

Is there a way to keep my desktop, documents, downloads, and other folders saved in iCloud Drive without their contents being optimizing them on my local device? I went through the iCloud and Storage parts of System Settings, but couldn't find anything.

(In case it's relevant, 655.57 GB of 994.66 GB Macintosh HD Storage Used and 934.34 GB of 2 TB iCloud+ Storage Used. It's a MacBook Air 13″ updated to macOS 14.4.1.)

Additionally, I’m having issues with Finder’s search function, by which I mean that it just doesn't work. No matter what I search for, whether by keyword, extension type, or location (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, vs. “This Mac”), nothing appears. Just a blank Finder screen. Any ideas on how to fix this?