If you open the Photos app (macOS) connected to iCloud with an empty library, there will be no photos until you import them from your phone. Hope this is clear now.
iCloud via browser has a limit of 1k photos per download.
This is not correct.
You don’t need an iPhone for Photos.app to work.
There are plenty of problems with Photos.app but the issue you describe isn’t by design.
This is not correct.
You don’t need an iPhone for Photos.app to work.
There are plenty of problems with Photos.app but the issue you describe isn’t by design.