photos on google photos might only be accessible with the appropriate rclone backend: https://rclone.org/googlephotos/

it has a few limitations, like google stores metadata (exif data) separately, so downloaded photos don't have them, there is another tool that puzzles it together automatically.
but now that I read it, for more than a year now rclone is only allowed to download what it uploaded? what bullshit is that, google?