i have the real answer for you. i also have 256GB. i have 2TB iCloud Drive $10 + tax a month i have a Sandisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD $100 my Apple Photos app is set to optimize storage. when i need to view them they load. when i need to work on them, i export originals to a folder on the desktop. for other files in the iCloud folder, i right click & remove downloads for files i'm not using. it keeps it in iCloud, but not on the computer. i download what i know i'll need on the go.