How to stop my Mac from downloading iCloud files but still have the directory accessible in Finder

I've noticed that my Mac is downloading or syncing or whatever with iCloud every Sunday and it completely takes up all of my internet bandwidth. Nothing else can load, no websites, no services nothing that's running on that same network can load any data. It's not even that big of a data load, it's only 1.5gig.

I've turned off iCloud Drive under the Mac's iCloud settings which now means I can't access iCloud at all on this Mac.

Yay it won't do that network consuming syncing anymore. Boo I literally have no way of accessing a service I am paying for.

Is there a way to view iCloud files on the Mac but simply as a directory, the files don't have to be downloaded just the paths. The files themselves can get downloaded when actioning it.

MBP M1 Pro (2021)

16-inch

Sonoma 14.5