Deleted files in iCloud drive still taking up space

Hello,

I have been having major issues with iCloud for the past several months. I've contacted support by phone (~2hours), and live chat (~45 mins), and have had no resolution. The most frustrating part of the live chat, was they had no record of my previous call and wanted to start everything from scratch.

Prior to my first call, I deleted all the files in my iCloud drive, and then went into iCloud online to delete them from the trash. (It has now been well and truly over 30 days, so even if I made a mistake while deleting them from the trash, if I recall correctly, it should be long gone).

iCloud is still showing me as using 9gb in iCloud Drive, though when I go in, I only see two encypted folders that are both empty. (Screenshots attached)

My MacBook pro also shows that I am using all this space:

Also consistent on iCloud.com

I'm now at a stage where iCloud is completely unusable because of these ghost files that seem to be taking up space that can't be deleted.

I know my easiest option would be just to pay £0.79/month for 50gb, but am reluctant to do so because this seems to me like it's an Apple error, and I don't feel good about supporting them financially (however minor) because of this issue, when I wouldn't be paying for a subscription if this issue didn't exist. Not sure if that makes any sense?

Any help or ideas in how to get rid of it (or even just nuke my entire iCloud drive account, as I've got nothing I need in there) would be very much appreciated.