@matigo At least with Mac and iOS/iPadOS one can select optimised storage for photos. Doing so on the old iPad Mini used about 5GB vs iClod (sic) Photo Library using 32GB.
The size options for the iPad Mini 5 were either 64 or 256GB, I had no choice as the device was a raffle prize. I either paid $5 or $20 depending how you break it down. Each ticket was $5, I bought four of them but only one came up. The device was originally priced at $599 and had thesame internal specs as the then current iPad Air 3.