Exported Photo Creation Dates Wonky

Well the thing is the File creation date reflects the date the file was created. The Exif date reflects the date that the photogrpah was created. The key here is that the file and the photograph are not the same thing.

An app like this

https://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderAttributes/

will allow you to edit the creation date to match the Exif.

The Photos.app on Catalina does no longer preserve the original file creation date at all. This is independent of iCloud Photos.

Previously, Photos would copy the original image file into the library package, exactly as it is. Exporting the unmodified original would create a file with the same creation date as the file we imported to Photos (unless iCloud syncing changed the dates). But now Photos is saving a copy with a new filename and extension (.jpg will be changed to .jpeg). When we export the original, Photos will recreate it from the saved, renamed file and that will result in changed file creation dates.

Inside the library package the originals are looking like this:

If you want to preserve original file creation dates, save backup copies of your originals, before you import them to Photos 5.0. Backing up the originals before importing them to Photos is a good practice anyway.

To get the file creation dates back you could use the application Raw Right Away. It installs two services "Apply World Time Stamp" "Apply Camera Timestamp". These will be available, when you ctrl-click an image in the Finder and lety you change the time stamp back.