Hey there sorealla,
We personally use iCloud Photos on both our iPhone and Mac, and it's amazing to have any edits/deletions/new photos show automatically the same way on both devices. While it's up to each person how to use iCloud on their device, we'd like to learn more about what's happening, along with ruling out some general possible causes:
- There should've been an option that showed when you disabled iCloud Photos on your iPad. This option would've let you decide to keep the photos on your iPad that were syncing with iCloud, or to delete them. To test this, does your iPhone show a new photo if you take one now using your iPad?
- Do you sync your iPad manually with a computer, and if yes, do you have it set to sync all photos?
- Sometimes unexpected behavior can be resolved with a restart: Restart your iPad
- If you have a compatible iPad model, the latest version is iPadOS 16.4. You can verify this within Settings > General > About. In case you needed it, this link shows how to first back up, then Update your iPhone or iPad.
Cheers!