Photos is just an app.
You can use another photo app, link it to another cloud provider, and be free of the burden.
If you use Photos, you're along for the ride, and you've consented to whatever it does.
You don't get a line-item veto on code you choose to run, that's never been how it works.
For what it's worth, I'm basically with the EFF on this: it looks like the thin end of a wedge, it sucks and I'm not happy about it.
But being histrionic doesn't help anything.