iCloud is slow and does what it wants

Icloud is very slow and has a mind of its own on my MacBook Pro I bought brand new in 2022 even wanting to open a simple picture I have to download from iCloud before I can view it takes ages. I keep telling it to keep these files downloaded but it seems to ignore you and do what it wants. It will keep them downloaded on the Mac for a few days then sync them to the cloud again without asking you your permission making you have to repeat the process again. I wouldn’t mind but I’m paying £9 a month for this awful service. It’s not just on my Mac it’s on my phone as well seem to take forever to view any of my files.