Finding hidden files in Photos in iOS 18.6.2

Key Question: How do I find the hidden files in Photos in iOS 18.6.2?

And here is the back story:

Very recently, I ran into some unusual behavior in my iPhone 15 Pro Max in that I suddenly for the first time ever, was not able to update the phone to iOS 18.6.1 without the phone locking up during the update process. This was the first time ever since iPhone 1 that I had ever seen anything like this happen and I have had every iPhone since the very first one except 12 and 14. I now have an iPhone 15 Pro Max and it had been working flawlessly since it first came out on the market, until I attempted to update it to iOS 18.6.1. I ended up having to take the phone to the local Apple Store and have the text restore the phone to a point to where I could reload my full back up. I was not able to do that myself despite multiple attempts. Again, this was the first time I had ever run into anything like this and this issue that I'm writing about has nothing to do with my understanding how to do software updates.

The techs at the local Apple store could not find any reason as to why this difficulty would be going on, but they certainly recognized that the phone was locked up. We made one correction and restored the phone back to my most recent full back up and the Apple Store updated the phone to iOS 18.6.1 in the process. Then, within a week after that, iOS 18.6.2 came out and my phone locked up again during the update process, just like happened with iOS 18.6.1. After four separate trips to the local Apple Store, the techs recommended scraping the phone clean of everything and taking it back to the same condition as a brand new phone first out of the box. We just accomplished that yesterday. And before we did a reset back to the starting condition, I backed up all of my pictures and other important data and then we synced the photos with iCloud. Then I began rebuilding the content in the phone based on my personal preferences.

I never failed to update the phone to every new version of iOS, but now that we have put iOS 18.6.2 on the phone, I am starting to see some aspects of things I am either unfamiliar with, or... I am having difficulty finding the hidden files that were in Photos before we made these recent corrective changes. Before all of this started, my image groups and access to hidden files were at the bottom of the photo screen, below the most recent images. Now all I see there is a bar offering to Customize & Reorder, and below that, Optimizing Library. Obviously, the images are now living in iCloud, but I am not able to find any way to locate them.

Can anyone offer any suggestions that will help resolve this? Thanks much...