iCloud filling up hard drive

This seems to be a recurring problem I see that Apple hasn't addressed.

Situation: iCloud Drive has more stored on it than available on the local hard drive.

MacOS Response: Let's fill the hard drive with everything from iCloud until there's no practically zero space left.

Customer Support Response: Empty your trash can, click optimize hard drive space, delete your iMessage attachments, and move your photos to the cloud.

What I'm left with: Hard drive is filled again a couple days letter.

Is there SOMEHOW a way to limit how much hard drive space iCloud will chew up and automatically off load the files to maintain that amount of space? This cannot be that hard.