Photos deletion issues and iCloud photos mismatch

amgreven wrote: …I frequently erase unwanted photos but these are very seldom visible in recently deleted.

I wonder what sort of "erase" you are doing. In Photos, if you delete a picture from an album, it doesn't erase the picture from other albums or from the Library. Albums are just lists of pictures, not containers of pictures, so images can be added to multiple albums without taking any more storage. And deleting a picture from an album just means removing it's name from the album list.

In a album, selecting a picture and hitting "Delete" only removes the picture from the album. Using Command-Delete will remove the picture from the album, from all other albums, and from the Library, going to Recently Deleted for 30 days before it is removed permanently.

Could it be that you are not using Command-Delete to erase pictures from the Library?

Glad we could figure it out!